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LIBRARY 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 


PRESENTED  BY 
ERIC   SCHMIDT 


PREFACE 

IN  July,  1893,  while  the  first  Summer  Meet- 
ing of  the  American  Society  for  the  Ex- 
tension of  University  Teaching  was  in  session 
at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  I  con- 
ducted the  students,  in  trips  taken  from  week 
to  week,  to  historic  spots  in  Philadelphia,  the 
battle-fields  of  the  Brandywine  and  of  Ger- 
mantown,  and  to  the  site  of  the  winter  camp  at 
Valley  Forge.  The  experiment  was  brought 
to  the  attention  of  Dr.  Albert  Shaw,  and  at 
his  instance  I  made  a  plea  through  the  pages 
of  The  American  Monthly  Review  of  Reviews, 
October,  1893,  for  the  revival  of  the  mediaeval 
pilgrimage,  and  for  its  adaptation  to  educa- 
tional and  patriotic  uses.  After  pointing  out 
some  of  the  advantages  of  visits  paid  under 
competent  guidance  and  with  reverent  spirit  to 
spots  made  sacred  by  high  thinking  and  self-for- 
getful living,  I  suggested  a  ten  days'  pilgrimage 
in  the  footsteps  of  George  Washington. 


IV 


Preface 


The  suggestion  took  root  in  the  public 
mind.  Leading  journals  commended  the  idea. 
New  England  people,  already  acquainted  with 
the  thought  of  local  historical  excursions,  hailed 
the  proposed  pilgrimage  with  enthusiasm.  Men 
and  women  from  a  score  of  States  avowed 
their  eagerness  to  make  the  experiment  ;  and 
at  the  close  of  the  University  Extension  Sum- 
mer Meeting  of  July,  1894,  in  which  I  had 
lectured  on  American  history,  I  found  myself 
conducting  for  the  University  Extension  So- 
ciety a  pilgrimage,  starting  from  Philadelphia, 
to  Hartford,  Boston,  Cambridge,  Lexington, 
Concord,  Salem,  Plymouth,  Newburg,  West 
Point,  Tarrytown,  Tappan,  New  York,  Prince- 
ton, and  Trenton. 

The  press  contributed  with  discrimination  the 
publicity  essential  to  success.  Every  commu- 
nity visited  rendered  intelligent  and  generous 
co-operation.  And  surely  no  pilgrims,  mediae- 
val or  modern,  ever  had  such  leadership  ;  for 
among  our  cicerones  and  patriotic  orators 
were  :  Col.  T.  W.  Higginson,  Drs.  Edward 
Everett  Hale  and  Talcott  Williams,  Hon. 
Hampton  L.  Carson,  Messrs.  Charles  Dudley 
Warner,  Richard  Watson  Gilder,  Charles  Carl- 
ton Cotifin,  Frank  B.  Sanborn,  Edwin  D.  Mead, 


Preface  v 

Hezekiah  Butterworth,  George  P.  Morris,  Pro- 
fessors W.  P.  Trent,  William  M.  Sloane,  W. 
W.  Goodwin,  E.  S.  Morse,  Brig.-Gen.  O.  B. 
Ernst,  Major  Marshall  H.  Bright,  and  Rev. 
William  E,  Barton. 

I  had  planned  in  the  months  that  followed  to 
publish  a  souvenir  volume  containing  the  more 
important  addresses  made  by  distinguished 
men  on  the  historic  significance  of  the  places 
visited  ;  but  as  the  happy  experience  receded 
into  the  past  a  larger  thought  laid  hold  of  me. 
Why  not  sometime  in  the  infrequent  leisure  of 
a  busy  minister's  life  edit  a  series  of  volumes 
on  American  Historic  Toivns  f  Kingsley's 
novels  were  written  amid  parish  duties,  and 
Dr.  McCook  has  found  time,  amid  exacting 
ministerial  duties,  to  make  perhaps  the  most 
searching  study  ever  made  by  an  American  of 
the  habits  of  spiders.  Medical  experts  agree 
concerning-  the  value  of  a  wholesome  avoca- 
tion  to  the  man  who  takes  his  vocation  seri- 
ously ;  and  congregations  are  quick  to  give 
ear  to  the  earnest  preacher  whose  sermons  be- 
tray a  large  outlook  on  life. 

A  series  of  illustrated  volumes  on  American 
Historic  Towns,  edited  with  intelligence,  would 
prove  a  unique  and  important  contribution  to 


vi  Preface 

historical  literature.  To  the  pious  pilgrim  to 
historic  shrines  the  series  would,  perhaps,  give 
the  perspective  that  every  pilgrim  needs,  and 
furnish  information  that  no  guide-book  ever 
offers.  To  those  w^ho  have  to  stay  at  home 
the  illustrated  volumes  would  present  some 
compensation  for  the  sacrifice,  and  would  help 
to  satisfy  a  recognized  need.  The  volumes 
would  probably  quicken  public  interest  in 
our  historic  past,  and  contribute  to  the  mak- 
ing of  another  kind  of  patriotism  than  that 
Dr.  Johnson  had  in  mind  when  he  defined  it 
as  the  "last  refuge  of  a  scoundrel." 

I  foresaw  some  at  least  of  the  serious  diffi- 
culties that  await  the  editor  of  such  a  series. 
If  all  the  towns  for  which  antiquarians  and 
local  enthusiasts  would  fain  find  room  should 
be  included,  the  series  would  be  too  long.  A 
staff  of  contributors  must  be  secured,  pos- 
sessing literary  skill,  historical  insight,  the 
antiquarian's  patience,  and  enough  confidence 
in  the  highest  success  of  the  series  to  be  pre- 
pared to  waive  any  requirement  of  adequate 
pecuniary  compensation.  Space  must  be  ap- 
portioned with  impartial  but  not  unsympathetic 
hand,  and  the  illustrations  selected  with  due 
discrimination.      And,   finally,   publishers  were 


Preface 


Vll 


to  be  found  willing  to  assume  the  expense 
required  for  the  production  in  suitable  form  of 
a  series  for  which  no  one  could  with  accuracy 
forecast  the  sale. 

The  last  and  perhaps  most  serious  difficultv 
was  removed  almost  a  year  ago  when  Messrs. 
G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons  expressed  a  willingness  to 
take  the  commercial  risk  involved  in  publishing 
the  present  volume,  which  will,  it  is  hoped,  be 
the  first  of  a  series.  Contributors  were  then 
found  whose  work  has,  I  trust,  secured  for 
the  undertaking  an  auspicious  beginning. 
Critics  inclined  at  first  glance  to  speak  harshly 
of  the  difTerences  among  the  contributors  in 
style  and  in  literary  method  are  advised  to 
withhold  judgment  till  a  closer  reading  has 
made  clear,  as  it  will,  the  fundamental 
differences  there  are  amone  the  towns  them- 
selves  in  history  and  in  spirit.  Adequate 
reasons  which  need  not  be  stated  here  have 
made  it  advisable  to  omit  Lexington,  Groton, 
Portsmouth,  the  Mystic  towns,  and  other 
towns  which  would  naturally  be  included  in  a 
later  volume  on  New  England  Towns,  in  case 
the  publication  should  be  continued. 

So  many  have  co-operated  in  the  making  of 
this  book  that   I   will   not  undertake  to   name 


Vlll 


Preface 


them  all.  But  I  cannot  forbear  to  acknowledge 
the  valuable  assistance  I  have  received  at  every 
stage  of  the  work  from  Mr.  G.  H.  Putnam, 
Mr.  Georofe  P.  Morris,  associate  editor  of 
The  Congregationalist,  and  Miss  Gertrude 
Wilson,  instructor  in  history  at  the  historic 
Emma  Willard  School.  The  Century  Com- 
pany has,  in  the  preparation  of  the  first  chapter 
on  Boston  and  the  chapter  on  Newport,  kindly 
allowed  the  use  of  certain  illustrations  and 
portions  of  articles  on  Boston  and  Newport, 
which  have  appeared  in  St.  NicJiolas  and  old 
Scribners  respectively.  Some  of  the  illustra- 
tions for  the  Portland  chapter  have  been  fur- 
nished by  Lamson,  the  Portland  photographer. 

The  Essex  Institute,  with  characteristic  gen- 
erosity, has  loaned  most  of  the  cuts  for  the 
Salem  chapter.  The  Ohio  State  Archaeologi- 
cal and  Historical  Society  has  allowed  the 
reproduction  from  The  Ohio  Qiia^-tci'ly  of  some 
of  the  designs  in  the  Rutland  chapter,  while 
certain  of  the  illustrations  in  the  Cape  Cod 
Towns  chapter  appeared  first  in  Fabnoiith 
Illustrated. 

Conscious  of  the  editorial  shortcomings  of 
the  volume,  I  still  dare  to  hope  that  it  may 
have  such  a  cordial  reception  as  will  justify  the 


preface 


IX 


publication  at  some  time  of  a  volume  on  His- 
toric Towns  of  the  Middle  States. 

Lyman   P.   Powell 

Ambler,  Pennsylvania 
September  21,  1898. 


CONTENTS 


Introduction 

George  Perry  Morris . 

PAGE 
I 

Portland 

Samuel  T.  Pickard     . 

•       53 

\.        Rutland,  Mass. 

Edwin  D.  Mead 

81 

Salem 

George  Dimmick  Latimer 

121 

Boston     . 

r  Thomas    Wentworth     Hig 

<          ginson 

(  Edward  Everett  Hale 

167 

,87 

Cambridge 

Samuel  A.   Eliot 

211 

Concord . 

Frank  B.  Sanborn 

243 

Plymouth 

Ellen  Watson     . 

299 

Cape  Cod  Towns 

Katharine  Lee  Bates  . 

345 

Deerfield 

George  Sheldon 

403 

Newport 

Susan  Coolidge 

443 

Providence 

William  B.  Weeden    . 

475 

Hartford 

Mary  K.  Talcott 

507 

New  Haven     . 

Frederick  H.  Cogswell 

553 

LLUSTRATIONS 


Plymouth  in  1622 


fro)itispit:'Ci' 


PORTLAND 

White  Head,  Gushing  Island       ......       55 

Deering's  Woods 59 

Showing  brook  which  the  soldiers  had  to  ford  in  the  fight 
with  the  Indians  in  1689. 

First  Parish  Church    ......  -63 

Containing  the  Mowatt  cannon-ljall. 
The  Birthplace  of  Longfellow  .....       67 

HenryW.  Longfellow 73 

N.  P.  Willis  ..........       77 

RUTLAND 

Dr.  Cutler's  Church  and  P.arsonage  at  Ipswich  Ham- 
let, 17S7  - 83 

View  of  Rutland  Street  •'  .         .  .         .         .         -85 

Manasseh  Cutler  '........       91 


'  Reproduced  by  permission  of  A.  S.  Burbank,  Plymouth,  Mass. 
-  Reproduced  by  permission   of  the  Ohio  State  Archseological  and  Historical 
Society,  Columbus,  Ohio. 

^  Reproduced  by  permission  of  C.  R.  Bartlett,  Rutland,  Mass. 
xiii 


XIV 


Illustrations 


Nathan  Dane  ' 

RuFUS  Putnam  ■ 

Site  OF  Marietta  AND  Harmak,  1788 '-^ 

The  "  Central  Tree  "  " 

The  Old  Rutland  Inn  * 

View  of  Rutland  Centre  from  Muschopauce  Hill  ^ 

British  Barracks  ■■ 

The  Rufus  Tutnam  House  ^ 

SALEM 

Governor  Endicott's  Sun-Dial  and  Sword 

The  First  Meeting-House,  1634-39  '  . 

Governor  Simon  Bradstreet  ■     . 

Governor  John  Endioott  ' 

The  Pickering  Fireback  '    . 

Old  Cradle  ' 

The  Roger  Williams'  or  "  Witch  House  ' 

Witch  Pins  '  . 

Timothy  Pickering       .... 

Some  Old  Doorways  '  . 

BowDiTCH  Desk  and  Quadrant  ' 

William  H.  Prescott    .... 

Nathaniel  Hawthorne 

From  an  engraving  from  a  painting  by  C.  G.  Thompson. 

Nathaniel  Hawthorne — Birthplace  of  Hawthorne — 
House  of  the  Seven  Gables — Grimshawe  House — 
The  Old  Town  Pump  ' 

Seal  of  the  City  of  Salem  '  ...... 


PAGE 

92 

95 

lOI 

103 
104 
107 
112 
114 


122 

123 
125 
126 
128 
131 
137 
142 

153 

155 
158 
160 
163 


165 
166 


'  Reproduced  by  permission  of  the  Essex  Institute,  Salem,  Mass. 
'  Reproduced  by  permission  of  the  Ohio  State  Archaeological  and  Historical 
Society,  Columbus,  Ohio. 

^  Reproduced  by  permission  of  C.  R.  Bartlett,  Rutland,  Mass. 

■•  Reproduced  by  permission  of  the  .Vciu  England  Magazine,  Boston,  Mass. 


Illustrations 


XV 


BOSTON 

Succory  or  "  Boston  Weed  " 
Trinity  Church  ' 
Boston  in  1757 

From  a  drawing  by  Governor  Pownall. 
"  Old  Corner  Bookstore  ' 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes 
Public  Library 
Map  of  Boston  in  1722 
Charles  Sumner    . 
Phillips  Brooks    . 
Faneuil  Hall  in  the  i8th  Century 
■Governor  Thomas  Hutchinson   . 

From  a  portrait  in  possession  of  the  Massachusetts  Histori- 
cal Society,  once  the  property  of  Jonathan  Mayhew. 
The  Old  South  Church  in  its  Present  Condition.    Built 

in  1729 
Old  State  House 
James  Otis 
Samuel  Adams 
Boston  Massacre 

From  a  painting  by  A.  Chappel. 
Landing  of  British  Troops  at  Boston,  1768 

Map  of  Boston  in  1775 

The  Frog  Pond  on  the  Common  as  it  now  Appears 
Seal  of  the  City  of  Boston  .... 


167 
l6g 
172 

175 
177 
179 
180 
1S2 
184 
189 
I  go 


193 
197 
199 
201 
203 

205 
206 
209 
210 


CAMBRIDGE 


Harvard  College  Gate 
Home  of  Longfellow  . 


213 
215 


Reproduced  by  permission  of  Daniel  W.  Colbath  &  Co.,  Boston,  Mass. 


XVI 


Illustrations 


"  The  Muses'  Factories." — Lowell    . 
Statue  of  John  Harvard  and  Memorial  Hall 

College 
HoLWORTHY  Hall,  Harvard  College 
Home  of  Lowell  . 
Washington  Elm  . 
James  Russell  Lowell 
Gymnasium,  Harvard  College 
William  E.  Russell 


221 

Harvari 

) 

225 

229 

231 

233 

235 

237 

240^ 

CONCORD 

Concord  River,  by  Thoreau's  Landing 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  (1858) 

From  a  sketch  by  Rowse. 
The  Fight  at  the  Bridge  '  . 

Redrawn  from  Ralph  Earle's  sketch  of  1775. 
The  Battle  of  Lexington,  April  19,  1775 

From  an  old  print. 
Muskets  of  Captain  John  Parker 
The  Minute-Man"^ 

French's  first  statue. 
Hawthorne's  Old  Manse     . 
Revolutionary  Inn'     . 
Henry  Thoreau  (1857) ' 
Graves  of  the  Emerson  Family 
Home  of  Emerson 
A.  Bronson  Alcott  (1875) '   . 
Louise  M.  Alcott 
Seal  of  the  City  of  Concord 


245 
252- 

255- 
263. 

266- 
269. 

274 

277 
280 
2S3 
287 
292: 
295 
297- 


Reproduced  by  permission  of  the  A'ew  England  Magazine,  Boston,  Mass. 
Reproduced  by  permission  of  the  W.  H.  Brett  Engraving  Co.,  Boston,  Mass. 


Illustrations 


XVlt 


PLYMOUTH 

Facsimile  of  a  Page  from  Governor  Bradford's  Manu- 
script, "  Plimoth  Plantation  "         ....  301 

The  original  is  now  in  the  Boston  State  House. 

Pulpit  Rock,  Clarke's  Island  ' 302 

The  Early  Norman  Doorway  at  Austerfield  Church    .  305 
The  Old   Fort  and   First   Meeting-House,  on  Burial 

Hill,  1621  ' 307 

Governor  Edward  Winslow  ' 313. 

The  Harbor  > 321 

Plymouth  in  1622  ' 323, 

The  "  Mayflower"  in  Plymouth  Harbor  '        .        .         .  333 

From  the  painting  by  W.  F.  Halsall,  in  Pilgrim  Hall. 

The  Old  Colony  Seal  . 334 

The  Landing  of  the  Fathers,  Tlymouth,  December  22, 

1620 335- 

Copied  from  an  old  painting  on  glass. 

The  Fuller  Cradle 33T 

An  Old  English  Spinning-Wheel 338- 

The  Doten  House,  1660  ' 339' 

The  oldest  house  in  Plymouth. 
The  Grave  of  Dr.  Francis  Le  Barran,  the  Nameless 

Nobleman  ' 342- 

Seal  of  the  City  of  Plymouth 343. 


CAPE  COD  TOWNS 

The  Beach,  Falmouth  ^ 347 

Map  of  Cape  Cod  Section  ■" 349- 

Provincetown 35S 

'  Reproduced  by  permission  of  A.  S.  Burbank,  Plymouth,  Mass. 
-  Reproduced  by  permission  of  the  Falmouth  Board  of  Industry,  Falmouth,. 
Mass. 

*  Reproduced  by  permission  of  Geo.  H.  Walker  &  Co.,  Boston,  Mass. 


XVUl 


Illustrations 


Fai 


"Wharves  at  Provincetown 
Provincetown  in  1S39  . 
From  an  old  drawing. 
Highland  Light   .... 
•Oyster  Point,  Wellfleet 
Bishop  and  Clerk  Light,  Hyannis 
Old  Windmill,  Eastham 
Ruins  of  the  Chatham  Light 
Life-Saving  Station  at  Wellfleet 
Bass  River  Bridge,  South  Yarmouth 
Barnstable  Inn     .... 
Bird's-eye  View  of  Falmouth  '    . 
The  Village  Green  '^     . 
Shirick's  Pond,  Falmouth  ' 
The  Whale-Ship  "Commodore  Morris" 
mouth  Captains  who  Sailed  in  Her 

DEERFIELD 

•Old  Deerfield  Street,  1671-1898 

Frary  House,  i6g8 

Oldest  in  the  county. 
Third  Meeting-House,  1695-1729 

(Old  Indian  house  on  the  right.) 
Parson  Williams's  House 

Built  by  the  town,  1707 — standing  1S9S. 
Door  of  "Old  Indian  House"  Hacked  hy  Indians 

Now  in  Memorial  Hall. 
Tombstones  of  Rev.  John  Williams  and  his  Wife 
Stephen  Williams,  1693-1782       .... 

A  captive  of  February  29,  1703-4. 

'  Reproduced  by  permission  of  the  Falmouth    Board  of  Industry,  Falmouth, 
Mass. 

-  Reproduced  by  permission  of  W.  H.  Hewins,  Falmoulli,  Mass. 


359 
3(>3 

371 
373 
376 
378 

383 
386 

387 
389 
395 
397 
399 

401 


405 
408 

419 

421 

423 

425 
428 


Illustrations 


XIX 


George  Fuller,  1822-1884    .        .         .        . 
Buffet  from  "  Parson  Williams's"  House 
Now  in  Memorial  Hall. 


PAGET 

437 
439' 


NEWPORT 

The  Old  Stone  Mill  .... 
Newport  in  1795  '  .  .  .  . 
George  Berkeley,  Dean  of  Derry  "  . 
Whitehall,  the  Berkeley  Rksidence,  Built  1729 

"  Purgatory " ^     

Rochambeau's  Headquarters  '    . 
Life  Mask  of  Washington  ■* 

Made  by  Houdon  in  1785. 
The  Parsonage  of  Mrs.  Stowe's  "  Minister's  Wooi.ng" 
Doorway  of  Old  House  on  Thames  Street  ^     . 
General  Nathanael  Greene '      .        .        .        . 

From  one  of  Malbone's  best  miniatures. 
Seal  of  the  City  of  Newport     ..... 


445 
447 
451 
455 
457 
459' 
463 

466 
46  8 
471 

473 


PROVIDENCE 

View  of  Providence 

From  the  south. 
Roger  Williams  Received  by  the  Indians 

From  a  design  by  A.  H.  Wray. 
The  Roger  Williams  Monument 
Stephen  Hopkins  ^         .         .         .         .         . 


477 

479 

483 
490 


'  Reproduced  by  permission  of  Simon  Hart,  Newport,  R.  I. 

^  Reproduced,  with  permission,  from  Porter's  Two  Hundredth  Birthday  of 
Bishop  George  Berkeley^  puhlisiied  by  Messrs.  CiiarLes  Seribner's  Sons. 

^  Reproduced  by  permission  of  The  Century  Co. 

*  Reproduced,  with  permission^  from  the  American  Monthly  Review  of  Re- 
vieivs,  from  the  editor's  article  on  the  Renaissance  of  the  Mediai<al  Pilgritnage, 
published  in  October,  1893 

°  Reproduced  by  permission,  of  Messrs.  D.  Appleton  &  Co., 


XX 


Illustrations 


Brown  University 

Francis  Wayland 

The  Capitol  .         .         .        . 

Seal  of  the  City  ok  ProvidExNck 


PAGE 

493 
499 
503 
506 


HARTFORD 

Main  Street 

Old  Center  Burying-Ground 

The  Charter  Oak         .... 

Old  State  House,  now  City  Hall 

Built  in  1794. 
Statue  of  Israel  Putnam     . 

J.  Q.  A.  Ward,  sculptor. 
Keney  Memorial  Tower  '     . 

The  Capitol 

Soldiers'  Memorial  Arch    . 

Harriet  Beecher  Stowe 

Dr.  Horace  Bushnell  .... 

From  a  crayon  drawing  by  S.  W.  Rowse. 
J.  Hammond  Trumbull,  LL. D. 
Arms  of  the  City  of  Hartford  . 


509 

513 
520 

529 
539 

541 

543 

545 
546 

547 

549 

551 


NEW   HAVEN 

Temple  Street 555 

John  Davenport 557 

From  a  portrait  in  possession  of  Yale  College. 
Roger  Sherman  *  .........     561 

Photographed  from  statue  on  the  east  front  of  the  Capitol 
at  Hartford. 

'  Reproduced  from  Trips  by  Trolley  and  Awheel  around  Hartford. 
'  Reproduced,  with  permission,  from  Boutell's  Life  of  Roger  Skernian,  pub- 
lished by  A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co.,  Chicago,  111. 


Illustrations 


XXI 


PAGE 

Judges'  Cave  . 567 

A  Humane  Enemy 571 

Phelps  Hall ?73 

OsBORN  Hall 577 

The  Art  Building 579 

Noah  Webster  ' 581 

Eli  Whitney 583 

East  Rock  Park 585 

Seal  of  the  City  of  New  Haven 586 

'  Reproduced,  with  permission,  from  IVebster's  Dictionary,  published  by  G.  & 
C.  Merriam  Co.,  Springfield,  Mass. 


INTRODUCTION 

By  GEORGE  PERRY  MORRIS 

FROM  the  earliest  days  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Colonies  down  to  the  present  time, 
those  European  analysts  of  our  national  life, 
whose  opinions  have  been  based  on  personal 
observation,  have  usually  conceded  that  in  New 
England  towns  and  villages  one  might,  at  al- 
most any  period  of  their  history,  find  a  higher 
average  degree  of  physical  comfort,  intelli- 
gence and  mental  attainment,  and  political  lib- 
erty and  power  than  was  or  is  to  be  found  in 
any  other  communities  of  Christendom.  Thus 
Alexis  de  Tocqueville,  in  1835,  ^^rote  : 

"  The  existence  of  the  townships  of  New  England  is, 
in  general,  a  happy  one.  Their  government  is  suited  to 
their  tastes,  and  chosen  by  themselves.  .  .  .  The 
conduct  of  local  business  is  easy.  .  .  .  No  tradition 
exists  of  a  distinction  of  ranks  ;  no  portion  of  the  com- 
munity is  tempted  to  oppress  the  remainder  ;   and  the 

I 


2  Introduction 

abuses  which  may  injure  isolated  individuals  are  for- 
gotten in  the  general  contentment  which  prevails.  .  .  , 
The  native  of  New  England  is  attached  to  his  township 
because  it  is  independent  and  free  ;  his  co-operation  in 
its  affairs  ensures  his  attachment  to  its  interest  ;  the 
well-being  it  affords  him  secures  his  affection,  and  its 
welfare  is  the  aim  of  his  ambition  and  of  his  future  ex- 
ertions. He  takes  a  part  in  every  occurrence  in  the 
place  ;  he  practises  the  art  of  government  in  the  small 
sphere  within  his  reach  ;  he  accustoms  himself  to  those 
forms  which  can  alone  ensure  the  steady  progress  of 
liberty  ;  he  imbibes  their  spirit  ;  he  acquires  a  taste  for 
order,  comprehends  the  union  of  the  balance  of  powers, 
and  collects  clear  practical  notions  on  the  nature  of  his 
duties  and  the  extent  of  his  rights."  ' 

If  this  be  true,  the  question  inevitably  arises, 
how  has  it  come  to  pass  ?  New  England,  as  a 
whole,  is  far  from  fertile.  Its  winters  are 
long  and  severe.  Of  mineral  wealth  it  has  lit- 
tle. The  raw  materials  for  its  countless  facto- 
ries and  mills,  the  fuel  for  its  factories,  homes, 
and  railroads,  must  be  obtained  in  the  territory 
south  and  west  of  the  Hudson  River.  The 
cereals  which  furnish  the  staple  diet  of  its  peo- 

'  De  Tocqueville's  Democracy  tft  America,  chapter  v.  Mr.  F.  J. 
Lippitt,  who  assisted  M.  de  Tocqueville  in  the  preparation  of  this 
work,  says  that  once  when  they  "had  been  talking  about  town- 
meetings,  de  Tocqueville  exclaimed  with  a  kindling  eye  (usually 
quite  expressionless),  '  Mais,  c'est  la  commune  ! '  " — Cf.  The  Century 
Magazine,  September,  1S9S,  p.  707. 


Introduction  3 

pie  come  from  Western  plains.  Its  best  blood 
and  brawn  have  gone  to  found  commonwealths 
ranging  from  the  Alleghany  to  the  Sierra  Ne- 
vada mountains,  and,  into  towns  once  popu- 
lated and  dominated  by  the  purest  of  English 
stock,  there  have  come  Irish  from  Ireland  and 
Canada,  French  by  way  of  Canada,  Portuguese, 
Italians,  and  Jews  from  Russia,  so  that,  in 
1890,  the  alien  male  adult  population  of  the 
several  States  was  found  by  the  Federal  cen- 
sus takers  to  be,  in  Maine,  5 1.43  per  cent.  ;  New 
Hampshire,  50.5  per  cent.  ;  Vermont,  41.25 
per  cent.;  Massachusetts,  46.10  per  cent.  ; 
Rhode  Island,  49.78  per  cent.  ;  Connecticut, 
36.52  per  cent. 

And  yet,  notwithstanding  these  economic 
disadvantages,  this  depletion  of  a  population 
inheriting  noble  ideals,  and  the  infusion  of  a 
class  of  settlers  holding,  in  many  instances, 
political  and  religious  convictions  quite  at  va- 
riance with  those  of  the  founders  of  the  colo- 
nies, the  "  type  "  persists.  The  New  England 
towns  are  still  unlike,  and  in  some  respects 
superior  to,  those  of  other  sections  of  the 
country.  The  New  England  States  still  lead 
in  reformatory  legislation.  New  England's 
approval  or  disapproval  of  ideas  affecting  na- 


4  Introduction 

tional  destiny  still  has  weight  with  Congress 
and  Presidents  altogether  disproportionate  to 
the  number  of  her  representatives  in  Congress 
or  her  votes  in  the  Electoral  Colleofe. 

If  one  will  walk  about  New  England  towns 
one  will  find  in  each  a  church,  a  town-house, 
and  a  school,  and  in  most  of  them  a  railroad 
station  and  a  factory.  In  the  majority  of 
them  there  will  also  be  a  public  library,  small 
perhaps  and  usually  housed  in  the  town-house, 
but  open  to  all,  and  supported  from  the  public 
funds.  In  the  larger  towns,  especially  in  those 
where  manufacturing  is  a  prominent  factor  in 
the  communal  prosperity,  a  hospital,  supported 
by  public  taxation,  is  open  to  all.  In  almost 
every  town  there  is  a  grass-covered,  tree-shaded 
"  common,"  which  serves  as  a  village  or  town 
park,  and  on  it  usually  stand  memorial  tablets 
or  statues  testifying  to  the  valor  of  the  dead 
who  went  forth  to  fight  in  the  War  of  the 
Revolution  or  in  the  Civil  War. 

The  church  symbolizes  that  belief  in  God 
and  that  disposition  to  obey  His  will  and  law 
which  the  noblest  and  wisest  men  of  all  ages 
and  climes  have  agreed  upon  as  the  sine  qua 
71071  of  civic  as  well  as  of  individual  prosperity, 
and  in  this  instance    it    also    stands   for    that 


Introduction  5 

separation  of  Church  and  State  which  our 
national  experience — and  that  of  Canada  and 
the  AustraHan  Colonies  as  well — shows  to  be 
the  ideal  relation.  That  for  a  time,  in  the 
early  days  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut, 
there  was  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  preserve 
a  union  of  State  and  Church,  an  attempt  which 
had  for  some  of  its  least  commendable  inci- 
dents the  wholesale  hanging  of  men  and  women 
for  witchcraft,  the  expulsion  of  Quakers,  and 
the  ostracism  or  exclusion  of  Roman  Catholics 
and  Anglicans,  is  not  to  be  denied. 

That  the  people  of  New  England  have  been 
duly  conscientious  is  apparent  by  the  multipli- 
cation of  churches  at  home,  and  by  their  never- 
ceasing,  overflowing  gifts  to  establish  churches, 
colleges,  schools,  and  Christian  missions  in  the 
South  and  West  and  in  foreign  lands.  It  is 
from  the  thrifty,  prosperous,  philanthropic 
New  Englanderthat  the  treasuries  of  the  great 
Protestant  missionary  and  educational  societies 
receive  their  largest  average  per-capita  gifts, 
and  it  is  to  New  England  that  the  steps  of  the 
Western  and  Southern  educator  still  turn  for 
endowments  which  his  State  may  not,  or  the 
people  cannot,  or  do  not,  give. 

Peopled  by  inhabitants  given  over  to  intro- 


6  Introduction 

spection,  and  as  fond  of  theology  as  the  Scotch, 
the  early  Xew  England  communities  were  in- 
tensely religious  and  sectarian.  God  to  them 
was  a  Personal  Sovereign,  intimately  concerned 
with  their  daily  life.  They  were  His  chosen 
people,  and,  as  such,  pledged  to  obedience  to 
His  service.  The  Church  was  His  Bride  ;  the 
clergyman  was  His  spokesman,  and  received 
the  deference — social  as  well  as  official — which 
was  due  to  one  so  augustly  commissioned.  The 
social  as  well  as  the  intellectual  life  of  the  com- 
munity centred  almost  exclusively  in  the  life 
of  the  church  and  the  sermons  of  its  clergy. 
Sectarian  animosities  were  the  inevitable  pro- 
duct of  a  mistaken  emphasis  put  upon  the  form 
or  utterance  of  truth,  rather  than  upon  truth 
itself  ;  or,  to  put  it  differently,  of  a  provincial- 
ism and  narrowness  of  vision  that  made  it  im- 
possible for  the  many  to  understand  that  truth 
is  many-sided,  that  men  are  different  tempera- 
mentally, that  revelation  is  continuous  and 
progressive,  and  that  religion  is  not  theology. 
Communities  exist  in  New  England  where  the 
old  view  still  obtains,  where  sectarianism  is  as 
rampant  as  ever,  where  the  clergyman  is  the 
social  autocrat  as  well  as  the  shepherd  of  souls. 
But  such  towns  are  becomino"  fewer  and  fewer 


Introduction  7 

as  the  years  go  by,  and  of  towns  of  the  newer 
type,  where  the  church  is  recognized  as  only 
one  of  the  many  agents  which  God  has  for 
ushering^  in  His  Kino-dom  on  earth.  New  Enor- 
land  now  has  quite  as  many,  probably,  as  are 
to  be  found  elsewhere. 

To  those  interested  in  the  theological  and 
religious  history  of  English-speaking  peoples, 
certain  New  England  towns  have  a  peculiar 
fascination  and  value  as  environments  which 
have  affected  character.  Northampton,  Mas- 
sachusetts, will  ever  be  a  Mecca  because  of 
the  identification  of  Jonathan  Edwards  with 
the  town.  Concord,  in  the  same  common- 
wealth, has  not  only  the  unique  glory  that 
belongs  to  a  town  where  national  history  has 
been  made  and  the  best  American  literature 
of  its  class  written  by  Hawthorne  and  Thoreau, 
but  also  it  is  the  town  where  Emerson's  minis- 
terial ancestors  lived,  where  he  flowered  out 
and  became 

that  grey-eyed  seer 
Who  in  pastoral  Concord  ways 
With  Plato  and  Hafiz  walked. 

Newport,  Rhode  Island,  with  all  its  present 
pre-eminence  as  a  place  where  "  Fashion  is  a 
potency     .     .     .      making  it  hard  to  judge  be- 


y 


8  Introduction 

tween  the  temporary  and  the  lasting,"  will  ever 
remain  most  worthy  of  resort  because  it  was 
the  birthplace  of  William  Ellery  Channing, 
and,  for  thirty  years,  was  the  home  of  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Samuel  Hopkins,  both  eminent  as  theolo- 
gians and  as  brave  pioneer  antagonists  of  human 
slavery.  Dr.  Hopkins  was  the  model  for  the 
New  England  pastor  described  by  Harriet 
Beecher  Stowe  in  The  Minister  s  Wooijig. 
Northfield,  Massachusetts,  is  known  to  thou- 
sands of  Christians  the  world  over,  who 
have  never  seen  its  rare  beauty  of  river  and 
landscape,  because  a  boy,  one  Dwight  L. 
Moody,  was  born  and  bred  there,  and  has  be- 
come the  greatest  evangelist  of  modern  times. 
Litchfield,  Connecticut,  is  famous  as  the  birth- 
place of  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  and  if  one 
wishes  flash-light  pictures  of  New  England 
ecclesiastical  and  social  life  at  the  beginning 
of  this  century,  let  one  read  the  autobiographic 
records  of  Lyman,  Henry  Ward,  Harriet,  and 
Catherine  E.  Beecher. 

Portland,  Maine,  is  known  to  thousands 
throughout  the  English-speaking  world,  who 
are  ignorant  of  every  other  fact  in  its  long  and 
honorable  history,  because  Francis  E.  Clark 
there  conceived  and  beean  that  movement  to 


Introduction  9 

enlist  young-  people  in  active  Christian  service, 
which  is  now  known  as  the  International  Young 
People's  Society  of  Christian  Endeavor,  with 
54,191  local  societies,  and  more  than  three  and 
one  quarter  million  adherents  enrolled,  Russia 
alone,  of  the  nations  of  the  earth,  being  with- 
out a  society  now.  Hartford,  Connecticut, 
with  a  discernment  and  gratitude  not  always 
displayed  by  municipalities,  has  named  its 
beautiful  municipal  park  after  Horace  Bush- 
nell,  for  many  years  its  most  eminent  divine 
and   "first  citizen." 

Salem,  fascinating  as  it  is  because  of  its  con- 
nection with  the  witchcraft  delusion  and  the 
early  Puritan  theocracy  ;  because  of  its  being 
for  a  time  the  home  of  Hawthorne,  who  has 
preserved  its  ancient  local  color  and  atmos- 
phere in  his  fiction  ;  and  because  of  its  ancient 
glory  as  a  seaport  town,  whence  departed  a 
fieet  of  sailing  craft  that  made  Salem  known 
throughout  the  world,  in  places  where  Boston 
and  New  York  were  then  unknown,  neverthe- 
less derives  its  chief  glory  from  the  fact  that  it 
was  the  town  where  Roger  Williams,  the  Welsh 
statesman  and  prophet,  found  a  church  willing 
to  sit  at  his  feet.  The  church's  loyalty,  how- 
ever, gave  way  at  last  to  the  resistless  pres- 


TO  Introduction 

sure  of  the  civil  authorities  and  the  zealous 
ecclesiastical  tyrants  of  the  Puritan  common- 
wealth, and  it  permitted  him  to  depart,  to  es- 
tablish in  Rhode  Island  a  community  based 
upon  the  principle  of  entire  liberty  of  con- 
science, and  majority  rule  in  secular  affairs. 
Massachusetts'  loss  and  the  world's  gain  are 
thus  summed  up  by  Gervinus  the  German 
historian  : 

"  The  theories  of  freedom  in  Church  and  State, 
taught  in  the  schools  of  philosophy  in  Europe,  were 
here  [Rhode  Island]  brought  into  practice  in  the  govern- 
ment of  a  small  community.  It  was  prophesied  that 
the  democratic  attempts  to  obtain  universal  suffrage,  a 
general  elective  franchise,  annual  parliaments,  entire 
religious  freedom,  and  the  Miltonian  right  of  schism 
would  be  of  short  duration.  But  these  institutions  have 
not  only  maintained  themselves  here,  but  have  spread 
over  the  whole  Union.  They  have  superseded  the  aris- 
tocratic commencements  of  Carolina  and  of  New  York, 
the  High-Church  party  in  Virginia,  the  theocracy  in 
Massachusetts,  and  the  monarchy  throughout  America  ; 
they  have  given  laws  to  one  quarter  of  the  globe,  and, 
dreaded  for  their  moral  influence,  they  stand  in  the 
background  of  every  democratic  struggle  in  Europe." 

Boston,  with  all  her  glories,  has  none  of 
which  she  is  more  proud,  than  the  fact  that 
within  her  borders    Phillips   Brooks  was  born 


Introduction  1 1 

and  labored  most  of  his  life.  Those  who 
came  within  his  range  of  influence  said  of 
him,  as  Father  Taylor  said  of  Emerson,  "  He 
might  think  this  or  that,  but  he  was  more 
like  Jesus  Christ  than  any  one  he  had  ever 
known." 

To  mention  Roger  Williams,  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards, William  Ellery  Channing,  Ralph  Waldo 
Emerson,  Horace  Bushnell,  Henry  Ward 
Beecher,  Phillips  Brooks,  Francis  E.  Clark, 
and  Dwight  L,  Moody,  is  to  name  the  greatest 
spiritual  forces  which  New  England  has  known, 
and  towns  fed  with  manna  by  such  prophets 
have  not  failed  to  indicate  the  influence  of 
personality  in  transforming  environment. 

The  "  town-house,"  or  town-hall,  of  the  New 
England  town  or  village,  in  its  architecture, 
is  a  modern  structure,  often  as  simple,  unpre- 
tentious, and  unornamented  as  the  "  meeting- 
house "  near  which  it  usually  stands  on  the 
villaore  ereen  or  "town  common."  It  is  the 
arena  wherein  rich  and  poor,  educated  and  il- 
literate, wise  and  foolish,  meet,  at  least  annually, 
and  as  much  oftener  as  occasion  demands,  to 
decide  those  questions  of  Home  Rule  which  are 
most  vital  to  all  concerned.  Education,  wealth, 
moral   worth,    shrewd     native    sense,    oratory, 


12  Introduction 

gifts  of  persuasion,  the  stirrings  of  ambition, 
civic  pride,  thrift,  foresight,  all  have  their  due 
weight  in  this  forum,  this  "  school  as  well  as 
source  of  democracy" — as  Mr.  Bryce  aptly 
phrases  it.  But  when  the  vote  is  taken,  the 
blacksmith  and  the  bank  president,  the  master 
and  the  servant,  the  principal  of  the  high  school 
and  the  loafer  around  the  villaore  bar  stand  on 
precisely  the  same  footing.  The  vote  of  one 
is  as  decisive  as  that  of  the  other, — no  less, 
no  more. 

Debate  and  procedure  which  have  the  qual- 
itative character  are  followed  by  voting  of 
the  quantitative  character,  and  the  result  re- 
presents average  intelligence  and  capacity  for 
self-government.  But  that  result,  because  it  is 
the  product  of  the  expressed  will  of  all,  has  an 
authority  more  enduring  and  inspiring  than 
any  that  the  autocracies,  oligarchies,  or  con- 
stitutional monarchies  of  Europe  have  ever 
displayed  or  now  possess. 

Using  the  town-meeting  as  a  rapier,  Samuel 
Adams 

"  fenced  with  the  British  ministry  ;  it  was  the  claymore 
with  which  he  smote  their  counsels  ;  it  was  the  harp  of  a 
thousand  strings  that  he  swept  into  a  burst  of  passionate 
defiance,  or  an  electric  call   to  arms,  or  a  proud  paean  of 


Introduction  13 

exulting  triumph,  defiance,  challenge,  and  exultation — 
all  lifting  the  continent  to  independence.  His  indom- 
itable will  and  command  of  the  popular  confidence 
played  Boston  against  London,  the  provincial  town-meet- 
ing against  the  royal  Parliament,  Faneuil  Hall  against 
St.  Stephen's." ' 

This  popular  government  not  only  enabled 
the  New  Enorland  Colonies  to  lead  all  the 
others  in  the  War  of  the  Revolution,  it  also 
furnished  men  and  ideas  for  the  formidable  task 
of  constitution-making  after  the  Revolution 
was  over  and  independence  won.  As  early  as 
1773,  the  rustic  Solons  of  the  town  of  Mendon, 
Massachusetts,  had  resolved  in  town-meeting  : 

"  That  all  men  have  an  equal  right  to  life,  liberty,  and 
property. 

"  Therefore  all  just  and  lawful  government  must  orig- 
inate in  the  free  consent  of  the  people. 

"  That  a  right  to  liberty  and  property,  which  are  natural 
means  of  self-preservation,  is  absolutely  inalienable,  and 
can  never  lawfully  be  given  up  by  ourselves  or  taken 
from  us  by  others." 

Naturally,  a  section  of  the  country  where  such 
sentiments  were  held  by  village  Hampdens  had 
a  preponderant  influence,  when  the  time  came 
to  draft  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and 

'Geo.  Wni.  Curtis,  Orations  and  Addresses,  vol.  iii. 


H  Introduction 

the  Constitution,  and  the  readiness  of  the  towns 
to  submit  to  taxation  and  to  give  their  sons 
when  the  call  to  arms  came  is  a  matter  of  un- 
impeachable record.  In  the  army  of  231,791 
soldiers,  furnished  by  the  Thirteen  Colonies  to 
combat  the  forces  of  Great  Britain  in  the 
Revolution,  the  four  New  England  Colonies 
sent  118,251  men,  Massachusetts  contributing 
67,907,  Connecticut  31,939,  New  Hampshire 
12,497,  and  Rhode  Island  5,908. 

In  the  War  of  181 2,  New  England,  as  a 
section,  was  not  very  enthusiastic,  but  her 
quota  of  troops  was,  nevertheless,  forthcoming. 
In  the  Civil  War,  1861-65,  her  troops  were 
the  first  to  respond  to  the  call  of  President 
Lincoln,  and,  out  of  2,778,304  men  who 
enlisted,  363,161  came  from  New  England. 
Of  these,  Massachusetts  furnished  146,730, 
Maine  70,107,  Connecticut  55,864,  New  Hamp- 
shire ZZ^9Z7^  Vermont  33,288,  and  Rhode 
Island  23,236.  In  fact,  surveying  the  history  of 
New  England  towns  from  the  time  when  they 
contributed  their  quota  of  men  and  money  to 
the  aid  of  the  Mother  Country  in  her  fight 
with  France  to  decide  who  should  be  supreme 
on  the  North  American  continent,  down  to  the 
recent  contest  between   the  United  States  and 


Introduction  15 

Spain,  it  can  truthfully  be  said  of  their  dem- 
ocratic form  of  government  that  it  "is  the 
most  powerful  and  flexible  in  history.  It  has 
proved  to  be  neither  violent,  cruel ,  nor  impa- 
tient, but  fixed  in  purpose,  faithful  to  its  own 
officers,  tolerant  of  vast  expense,  of  enormous 
losses,  of  torturing  delays,  and  strongest  at 
the  very  points  where  fatal  weakness  was 
most  suspected."  And  this,  be  it  remembered, 
where  "  the  poorest  and  most  ignorant  of  every 
race  .  .  .  are  the  equal  voters  with  the 
richest  and  most  intelligent."  This,  too,  where 
the  newly  landed,  propertyless  immigrant  from 
Italy  or  Russia,  if  able  to  comply  with  the  gen- 
erous provisions  governing  naturalization  and 
the  exercise  of  the  franchise,  has  the  same  po- 
tentiality at  the  polls  as  the  thrifty,  well-to-do, 
heavily  taxed  citizen  whose  ancestors,  per- 
chance, may  have  come  over  with  the  Pilgrims 
on  The  Mayfloiuer. 

Considered  either  in  its  origin  or  its  develop- 
ment, the  New  England  town-meeting  merits 
the  study  of  all  who  are  interested  in  the  ex- 
tension of  principles  of  democracy.  The  Eng- 
lish settlers  of  New  England  were,  as  Mr. 
Bryce  says,  "  largely  townsfolk,  accustomed  to 
municipal  life  and  to  vestry  meetings."     They 


1 6  Introduction 

brouofht  with  them,  as  an  inheritance  from 
their  Teutonic  ancestors,  a  habit  of  self-rule 
which  the  peculiar  isolation  of  the  colonies 
and  the  separate  communities  in  the  colo- 
nies strengthened  ;  hence  a  form  of  govern- 
ment in  which  the  town  was  the  unit  evolved 
inevitably. 

The  more  mixed  composition  of  the  popula- 
tion in  the  Middle  Atlantic  Colonies,  for  the 
same  reason,  inevitably  caused  a  mixed  type  of 
government  to  be  created  there,  in  which  the 
county  or  shire  divided  the  authority  with  the 
town  ;  while  in  the  Southern  Colonies  the  im- 
migrants were  of  such  a  character,  and  the  eco- 
nomic conditions  so  different  from  those  in 
New  England,  that  a  more  aristocratic  form 
of  government  evolved,  semi-feudal  in  its  type, 
and  the  county,  rather  than  the  town,  became 
the  important  minor  political  unit  within  the 
State,  never,  however,  having  a  vigorous  inde- 
pendent life,  the  colony  and  afterward  the 
State  becoming  the  source  of  authority  and 
the  end  of  government.  Long  years  after- 
ward, in  the  Civil  War,  the  two  types  of  gov- 
ernment clashed,  and  the  type  prevailed  which 
Thomas  Jefferson  praised  and  wished  trans- 
ferred to  \^irginia,  for,  said  he  : 


Introduction  17 

*'  Those  wards  called  townships  in  New  Eng- 
land are  the  vital  principle  of  their  govern- 
ments, and  have  proved  themselves  the  wisest 
invention  ever  devised  by  the  wit  of  man  for 
the  perfect  exercise  of  self-government  and 
for  its  preservation." 

It  is  well,  however,  to  note,  that  Mr.  Charles 
Borgeaud,  the  eminent  Genevan  historian,  in 
his  work  on  the  Rise  of  Modem  Democracy, 
disputes  the  Teutonic  origin  of  the  town-meet- 
ing, and  contends  that  it  must  be  credited  to 
the  democratic  principles  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment as  interpreted  and  accepted,  first  by  the 
Brownists  of  England,  and  held  later  by  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  and  those  of  the  Puritans 
who  accepted  the  Independent  form  of  church 
government,  rather  than  to  any  principle  of 
communal  government  first  evolved  by  Teu- 
tons.     He  says  : 

"  At  the  moment  when  the  colonists  of  New  England 
quitted  the  Mother  Country,  whatever  was  left  of  that 
old  self-government  which  had  been  exercised  by  their 
forefathers  was  under  the  influence  of  the  general  move- 
ment, and  was  undergoing  aristocratic  transformation. 
The  vestries,  or  meetings  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  parish, 
were  being  replaced  by  committees  known  as  select 
vestries,  which  were  originally  elected,  and  then,  before 
long,  recruited  by  co-optation.    Had  the  American  colo- 


1 8  Introduction 

nists  purely  and  simply  imitated  in  their  new  country 
the  system  which  they  had  seen  at  work  in  England, 
they  certainly  would  not  have  founded  the  democratic 
government  of  the  town-meeting.  In  order  to  explain 
their  political  activity,  we  must  take  into  account,  and 
that  largely,  their  religious  ideas.  And  we  shall  be 
naturally  led  to  do  this  if  we  remember  that,  in  the  begin- 
ning, each  settlement  or  town  was,  before  all  things,  a  con- 
gregation, and  that  the  town-meeting  was  in  most  cases 
the  same  thing  as  the  assembly  of  the  congregation.  In 
Virginia,  where  the  colonists  remained  members  of  the 
Anglican  Church,  there  was  no  town-meeting,  but  only 
select  vestries  as  in  England,  and  these  had  certainly  lost 
all  family  likeness,  if  they  really  were  related  to  the 
Thing  and  the  Tii!ige>not." 

In  due  time,  when  pioneers  from  New  Eng- 
land found  their  way  to  the  then  virgin  lands 
of  Central  New  York,  the  valley  of  the  Ohio, 
and  the  northern  half  of  the  vast  valley  of  the 
Mississippi,  they  carried  with  them  the  po- 
litical and  religious  ideals  of  New  England. 
Where  they  were  a  large  majority  of  the  set- 
tlers within  a  given  territory,  or  where  at  the 
time  when  its  organic  structure  was  forming 
they  dominated  it,  the  town  was  established  as 
the  political  unit  in  the  territory.  Such  was 
the  case  in  Michigan,  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  and 
Minnesota.  Where  New  England  settlers 
joined  with  those  from  the  Middle  States,  or 


Introduction  19 

the  border  States  of  Kentucky  and  Virginia, 
they  often  found  it  necessary  to  compromise 
on  a  system  in  which  the  county  and  the  town 
were  peers,  as  in  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Iowa. 
But,  as  experience  has  proved,  the  modified 
township  system,  as  it  is  found  in  Ilhnois 
and  Michig-an,  is  more  advantageous  than  the 
system  of  divided  authority,  and  many  of  the 
Western  States  are  gradually  adopting  it,  Cali- 
fornia, Nebraska,  and  the  Dakotas  having  re- 
cently made  it  either  permissible  or  mandatory. 

Nor  are  signs  lacking  that  in  the  South,  as  its 
white  population  increases  by  immigrants  from 
the  North,  as  the  patriarchal  and  pastoral  type 
of  civilization  gives  way  to  the  modern  indus- 
trial and  corporate  type,  as  cities  and  towns 
multiply,  and  local  as  well  as  State  pride  has 
free  chance  to  develop,  there  will  be  an  adop- 
tion of  the  modified  township  system  and  a 
gradual  abolition  of  the  county  system. 

Among  the  changes  of  the  last  half-century 
in  New  England,  one  notable  one  has  been 
the  tendency  of  the  larger  towns  to  adopt  the 
city  form  of  government  as  soon  as  it  was 
deemed  that  the  increase  of  population  war- 
ranted the  step  and  made  it  necessary.  This 
fact,  as  well  as  the  marked  increase  of  urban 


20  Introduction 

population  in  New  England/  is  counted  by 
some  students  of  her  social  development  as  in- 
dicative of  retrogression,  however  inevitable. 
Certain  it  is,  that  if  the  town  of  Brookline, 
with  its  population  of  16,164,  ^^^  its  property 
valuation  of  $64,169,200,^  and  annual  appro- 
priations of  more  than  $900,000,  can  still  work 
the  ancient  machinery  of  the  town-meeting 
without  the  slightest  loss  either  of  a  pecuniary 
or  a  civic  sort,  other  towns,  with  a  smaller 
population  and  much  smaller  valuation  of  prop- 
erty, cannot  reasonably  claim  that  mere  physi- 
cal growth  is  any  warrant  for  the  change  from 
a  system  so  purely  democratic  to  one  less  so 
and  much  more  readily  adapted  to  serve  the 
ends  of  partisan  bosses  and  those  who  batten 
at  the  public  crib. 

The  third  of  the  indispensable  and  ever- 
present  institutions  found  in  every  New  Eng- 
land town  or  village  is  the  public  school,  open 

'  In  1810,  less  than  15  per  cent,  of  the  population  of  Rhode  Island 
was  found  in  towns  of  8000  or  more  inhabitants  ;  in  iSgo,  nearly  80 
per  cent.  In  Massachusetts,  in  1790,  five  per  cent,  were  urban 
dwellers  ;  in  1890,  70  per  cent.  In  Connecticut,  in  1830,  3  per 
cent,  lived  in  cities  ;  in  1890,  more  than  50  per  cent.  In  1840,  3  per 
cent,  in  New  Hampshire  lived  in  cities  ;  in  1890,  more  than  25 
per  cent.  In  1820,  in  Maine,  4  per  cent,  lived  in  cities  ;  in  1890, 
20  per  cent. 

■^  C/.  Town  Records  of  Brookline,  1897-98. 


Introduction  21 

to  all  and  supported  by  all.  Roman  Catholic, 
Protestant  and  Jew,  Caucasian  and  African, 
French  Canadian  and  Irish,  Italian  and  Portu- 
guese, English  and  German,  mingle  in  the 
school-room  and  learn  the  essential  likeness  of 
each  to  the  other,  their  common  and  peculiar 
gifts,  and  their  common  duties  to  God  and  the 
State.  No  man  in  the  community  is  so  rich 
or  aristocratic  as  to  escape  taxation  for  sup- 
port of  the  school,  even  though  his  children 
may  never  darken  the  doors.  No  man  in  the 
community  is  so  humble  or  so  poor  as  to  be 
debarred  from  sending  his  children  to  the 
highest  as  well  as  to  the  lowest  grades.  Un- 
sectarian  in  the  sense  that  they  derive  support 
from  taxpayers  of  all  sects  and  inculcate  the 
dogmas  of  none,  secular  in  the  sense  that  re- 
ligion is  not  a  part  of  the  curriculum,  they 
ever  have  been  a  bulwark  to  the  cause  of 
religion,  partly  by  reason  of  the  example  of 
the  teaching  force,  who  usually  are  men  and 
women  with  religious  faith  as  well  as  mental 
attainment,  and  partly  because  they  have  de- 
veloped the  rational  powers  of  men,  and  thus 
enabled  them  to  discriminate  between  super- 
stition and  truth.  Beginning,  jn  the  more 
favored  and  advanced  communities,  with   km- 


2  2  Introduction 

dergarten  instruction  for  young  children,  and 
not  ceasing  until  the  youth  or  maiden  is  pre- 
pared to  enter  the  college  or  university,  the 
State  and  the  town,  co-operating  together, 
make  it  possible  for  every  parent  to  give  to 
his  children,  or  for  every  ambitious  or  friend- 
less boy  or  girl  to  secure  for  himself  or 
herself,  at  the  public  expense,  a  thorough 
preparatory  education.  Nor  is  there  any  item 
of  his  vearly  tax  bill  which  the  typical  New 
Englander  pays  with  greater  alacrity  and  more 
certainty  of  belief  as  to  its  equity  or  economy 
than  his  annual  contribution  for  popular  edu- 
cation. For  it  is  ingrained  in  his  very  being, 
woven  into  the  texture  of  his  life,  to  believe, 
as  Garfield  said,  that  "  next  in  importance  to 
freedom  and  justice  is  popular  education,  with- 
out which  neither  freedom  nor  justice  can  be 
permanently  maintained."  Moreover,  being 
shrewd  as  well  as  a  man  of  high  principles 
and  a  lover  of  learning  for  its  own  sake,  the 
New  Englander  is  convinced  that  It  pays  to 
be  educated,  and  to  have  educated  neiirhbors 
and  children.  His  reasoning  takes  this  form  : 
The  more  children  in  the  schools,  the  fewer 
youths  and  adults  in  the  jails  and  poorhouses. 
The  better  informed  the  mill   operatives,  the 


Introduction  23 

larger  the  output  of  the  mills.  The  higher 
the  standard  of  living,  the  larger  the  demand 
for  the  product  of  the  soil  and  the  loom,  and 
the  better  the  home  market.  The  more  in- 
telligent the  voter,  the  less  the  seductive 
power  of  the  demagogue  and  the  "  political 
boss."  In  short,  the  New  England  people 
have  always  believed,  and  still  believe,  what 
the  inscription  on  the  Public  Library  in  Bos- 
ton declares  : 

THE    COMMONWEALTH   REQUIRES  THE  EDUCATION 

OF  THE  PEOPLE  AS  THE  SAFEGUARD 

OF  ORDER  AND   LIBERTY. 

That  the  policy  has  been  a  wise  one,  is  indi- 
cated by  New  England's  share  in  the  various 
struggles  for  liberty  which  the  country  has  seen, 
the  stability  of  all  her  institutions,  her  exemp- 
tion from  disorder  and  Industrial  disputes  which 
culminate  in  violence,  her  inhospitality  to  "  boss 
rule  "  in  politics,  and  the  thrift  and  prosperity 
of  her  citizens. 

Historically  speaking,  the  "public  school" 
is  a  very  ancient  New  England  institution. 
Boston  had  one  as  early  as  1635,  and,  in  1647, 
the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  enacted  : 


24  Introduction 

"  That  to  the  end  that  learning  may  not  be  buried 
in  the  graves  of  our  forefathers,  it  was  ordered  in 
all  the  Puritan  colonies  that  every  township,  after  the 
Lord  hath  increased  them  to  the  number  of  fifty  house- 
holds, shall  appoint  one  to  teach  all  children  to  write 
and  read  ;  and  when  any  town  shall  increase  to  the  num- 
ber of  one  hundred  families,  they  shall  set  up  a  Gram- 
mar School,  the  master  thereof  to  be  able  to  instruct 
youth  so  far  as  they  may  be  fitted  for  the  University." 

Nine  years  earlier,  in  1638,  the  same  body  had 
founded  a  college  (Harvard)  at  Cambridg-e,  in 
order,  as  they  said,  that  "the  light  of  learning 
mieht  not  q-q  out,  nor  the  studv  of  God's  word 
perish."  These  two  acts  of  the  General  Court 
may  be  reckoned  as  the  germs  from  which 
has  developed  that  system  of  secondary  and 
higher  education  which  has  given  Massachu- 
setts the  place  of  leader  in  the  history  of  educa- 
tion in  America. 

In  1645,  Connecticut  passed  a  law  similar  to 
the  earlier  Massachusetts  statute  of  1642,  but 
not  until  1701  was  Yale  University  founded  at 
New  Haven.  Rhode  Island  did  not  have  a 
system  of  popular  education  until  just  as  the 
eighteenth  century  was  closing.  New  Hamp- 
shire, Maine,  and  Vermont  accepted  the  Mas- 
sachusetts methods  and  ideals,  with  some  minor 
variations.. 


Introduction  25 

Devout  as  were  the  founders  of  New  Eng- 
land, it  followed  inevitably  that  they  should 
establish  institutions  where  their  children 
might  obtain  a  distinctly  religious  training  as 
well  as  a  general  education.  Thus,  for  a  long 
period  of  New  England  history,  the  Christian 
academy,  under  denominational  control,  flour- 
ished just  as  it  does  now  in  the  West,  and  for 
much  the  same  reason.  As  the  public-school 
system  has  expanded,  as  town  after  town  has 
added  the  high  school  to  the  primary  and  gram- 
mar school,  as  sectarian  fences  have  toppled 
over  or  ceased  to  be  restrictive,  the  academy 
of  the  old  type  has  ceased  to  play  the  part  it 
once  did  in  New  England  life.  But,  in  any 
survey  of  the  history  of  education  in  New 
England,  it  should  not  be  overlooked.  Many 
excellent  institutions  of  this  type  still  survive 
to  meet  the  demands  of  those  persons  who 
either  distrust  the  public  high  school,  or  else 
are  unable  to  send  their  children  to  one, 
owing  to  residence  in  towns  where  the  school 
system  has  not  developed  to  that  extent.  But, 
as  a  rule,  the  New  England  boy  and  girl,  no 
matter  what  the  social  station  or  wealth  of  his 
or  her  parent,  still  "  derives  his  or  her  prepara- 
tion for  college  or  life  from  the  community  in 


24 


Introduction 


"  That  to  the  end  that  learning  may  not  be  buried 
in  the  graves  of  our  forefathers,  it  was  ordered  in 
all  the  Puritan  colonies  that  every  township,  after  the 
Lord  hath  increased  them  to  the  number  of  fifty  house- 
holds, shall  appoint  one  to  teach  all  children  to  write 
and  read  ;  and  when  any  town  shall  increase  to  the  num- 
ber of  one  hundred  families,  they  shall  set  up  a  Gram- 
mar School,  the  master  thereof  to  be  able  to  instruct 
youth  so  far  as  they  may  be  fitted  for  the  University." 

Nine  years  earlier,  in  1638,  the  same  body  had 
founded  a  college  (Harvard)  at  Cambridge,  in 
order,  as  they  said,  that  "the  light  of  learning 
might  not  go  out,  nor  the  study  of  God's  word 
perish."  These  two  acts  of  the  General  Court 
may  be  reckoned  as  the  germs  from  which 
has  developed  that  system  of  secondary  and 
higher  education  which  has  given  Massachu- 
setts the  place  of  leader  in  the  history  of  educa- 
tion in  America. 

In  1645,  Connecticut  passed  a  law  similar  to 
the  earlier  Massachusetts  statute  of  1642,  but 
not  until  1701  was  Yale  University  founded  at 
New  Haven.  Rhode  Island  did  not  have  a 
system  of  popular  education  until  just  as  the 
eighteenth  century  was  closing.  New  Hamp- 
shire, Maine,  and  Vermont  accepted  the  Mas- 
sachusetts methods  and  ideals,  with  some  minor 
variations.. 


Introduction 


25 


Devout  as  were  the  founders  of  New  Eng- 
land, it  followed  inevitably  that  they  should 
establish  institutions  where  their  children 
might  obtain  a  distinctly  religious  training  as 
well  as  a  general  education.  Thus,  for  a  long 
period  of  New  England  history,  the  Christian 
academy,  under  denominational  control,  flour- 
ished just  as  it  does  now  in  the  West,  and  for 
much  the  same  reason.  As  the  public-school 
system  has  expanded,  as  town  after  town  has 
added  the  high  school  to  the  primary  and  gram- 
mar school,  as  sectarian  fences  have  toppled 
over  or  ceased  to  be  restrictive,  the  academy 
of  the  old  type  has  ceased  to  play  the  part  it 
once  did  in  New  England  life.  But,  in  any 
survey  of  the  history  of  education  in  New 
England,  it  should  not  be  overlooked.  Many 
excellent  institutions  of  this  type  still  survive 
to  meet  the  demands  of  those  persons  who 
either  distrust  the  public  high  school,  or  else 
are  unable  to  send  their  children  to  one, 
owinof  to  residence  in  towns  where  the  school 
system  has  not  developed  to  that  extent.  But, 
as  a  rule,  the  New  England  boy  and  girl,  no 
matter  what  the  social  station  or  wealth  of  his 
or  her  parent,  still  "  derives  his  or  her  prepara- 
tion for  college  or  life  from  the  community  in 


I  ( 


28  Introduction 

and  colleges  controlled  by  Christian  educators 
and  trustees.  Nor  do  they  cease  to  believe  in 
the  academy  and  the  college  now  that  the  com- 
petition of  the  State  university  in  the  States 
of  the  interior  and  the  West  is  so  intense,  and 
the  reliance  of  the  treasuries  of  these  Western 
Christian  institutions  upon  the  gifts  of  their 
friends  in  New  England  increases  rather  than 
abates. 

Impressed  with  the  need,  in  all  sections  of 
the  country,  of  a  well-instructed  and  intelli- 
gent electorate,  and  convinced  that  the  South 
was  too  poor  to  provide  for  itself  the  schools 
that  its  unfortunate  illiterate  whites  and  blacks 
needed.  New  Englanders  early  began  to  con- 
tribute to  the  support  of  academies  and  colleges 
in  the  South.  Not  always  welcomed  by  the 
ruling  class,  the  pioneers  in  this  work  perse- 
vered, and  many  of  them  have  lived  long 
enough  to  receive  the  thanks  of  those  who 
at  first  despised  and  scorned  them.  Millions 
of  dollars  have  gone  from  New  England  for 
the  founding  and  support  of  such  institutions 
as  Berea  College,  Kentucky;  Atlanta  Univer- 
sity, Georgia  ;  Hampton  Institute,  Virginia  ; 
Fisk  University,  Tennessee  ;  and  Tuskeegee 
Institute,  Alabama.      Three  New  Englanders, 


Introduction  29 

George  Peabody  of  Danvers,  Mass.,  John  F. 
Slater  of  Norwich,  Conn.,  and  Daniel  Hand 
of  Guilford,  Conn.,  have  given  between  them 
$5,100,000  in  bequests  or  donations  for  the  es- 
tablishment or  assistance  of  schools,  colleges, 
and  training  schools  for  teachers  in  the  South. 
The  Peabody  Education  Fund,  from  1868  to 
1897,  distributed  in  the  South,  from  its  income 
alone,  a  sum  amounting  to  $2,478,527. 

Nor  is  New  England's  influence,  education- 
ally speaking,  limited  to  the  United  States. 
The  educational  system  of  Honolulu  is  based 
on  New  England  models.  Robert  College, 
near  Constantinople,  has  spread  the  principles 
of  Christian  democracy  in  Church  and  State, 
as  they  are  held  by  New  Englanders,  through- 
out Bulgaria  and  the  Balkan  states,  and  given 
ideals  to  the  Young  Turkey  party  in  the  land 
where  the  Sultan  is  dominant.  The  Hugue- 
not Seminary  in  South  Africa  was  distinctly 
modelled  after  Mt.  Holyoke  Seminary,  and  its 
first  teaching  staff  was  made  up  of  New  Eng- 
land women  educated  at  Mt.  Holyoke.  Wher- 
ever American  Protestant  missionaries  have 
gone  and  established  schools  and  colleges  in 
Asia,  Africa,  or  Europe,  almost  invariably 
the  master  spirits,  the  men  and  women  who 


30  Introduction 

have  given  character  to,  and  estabHshed  the 
ideals  of,  the  institutions,  have  been  graduates 
of  the  New  England  colleges  and  academies, 
even  if  not  New-England-born. 

Subtract  from  the  history  of  education  in 
the  United  States,  during  the  latter  half  of  the 
century  just  closing,  the  influence  of  four  men, 
Horace  Mann,  Henry  Barnard,  Charles  Wil- 
liam Eliot,  and  William  Torrey  Harris,  and 
you  take  from  it  the  best  that  it  stands  for 
to-day.  All  of  these  men  were  born  in  New 
E norland.  All  were  reformers.  All  showed 
great  administrative  ability.  All  lived  to  see 
their  radical  views  find  general  acceptance. 
Horace  Mann  did  his  greatest  work  in  re- 
modelling the  public-school  system  of  Mas- 
sachusetts. Barnard  did  a  similar  work  in 
Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  and  Wisconsin,  but 
his  greatest  service  to  the  cause  of  education 
was  his  masterly  editing  of  the  Americafi 
Journal  of  Education,  from  1855  to  1881. 
Eliot  has  transformed  the  curriculum  of  Har- 
vard, the  oldest  university  of  the  North,  has 
resolutely  contended  for  the  largest  measure 
of  election  by  the  student  in  his  selection 
of  studies,  his  personal  conduct,  and  his 
personal    attitude    toward    God,    and    he    has 


Introduction  31 

made  "  Veritas  "  in  very  truth  the  appropriate 
motto  of  the  leading  American  institution  of 
learning.  Harris,  as  an  interpreter  of  the  phi- 
losophy of  education,  both  in  his  many  writ- 
ings and  more  numerous  addresses,  has  lifted 
the  popular  conception  of  the  profession  of 
teaching  to  a  loftier  and  more  rational  plane, 
while  his  control  of  the  United  States  Bureau 
of  Education  since  1889  has  given  it  a  stand- 
ing abroad,  and  a  measure  of  utility  at  home, 
which  it  is  gratifying  to  contemplate. 

Few  towns  in  New  England  possess  more 
charm,  whether  of  nature  or  society,  than  the 
towns  in  which  her  long-established  institu- 
tions of  learning  have  taken  root,  flourished, 
and  dominated  the  life  of  the  community. 
New  Haven,  Cambridge,  and  Providence  are 
all  cities  now  with  a  heterogeneous  population 
and  large  manufacturing  interests,  and  they 
each  contain  thousands  oi  inhabitants  to  whom 
Harvard,  Yale,  and  Brown  are  of  as  little 
practical  benefit  or  concern  as  if  they  were 
situated  in  remote  Hawaii  or  Porto  Rico. 
Nevertheless,  the  chief  glory  of  each  of  these 
large  towns  is  its  institution  of  learning,  and 
to  each  there  come  added  beauty  of  life  and 
elevation    of    tone    because    of    the    presence 


32  Introduction 

within  its  borders  of  so  many  thirsty  and 
hungry  students  and  highly  educated  and  apt 
instructors.  It  would  be  idle,  however,  to 
claim,  for  instance,  that  Cambridge  to-day  is 
quite  as  unique  and  charming  in  its  simplicity 
and  purity  of  life,  or  quite  as  classic  in  its 
atmosphere,  as  it  was  in  the  days  when  the 
town  was  a  village,  when  the  university  was  a 
college,  and  when  thought  and  manners  were  as 
ideal  as  James  Russell  Lowell  in  his  essay,  Cam- 
bj'idge  Thii'ty  Years  Ago,  and  Thomas  Went- 
worth  Higginson  in  his  latest  book.  Cheerful 
Yesterdays,  picture  them. 

To  study  the  American  college  town  at  its 
best,  unsullied  by  the  grime  of  industrialism 
and  the  temptations  and  conventionalities  of 
city  life,  one  must  go  to  hill-towns  like  Am- 
herst and  Williamstown,  Massachusetts,  or 
Hanover,  New  Hampshire.  But  even  there, 
standards  of  living  and  conduct  among  stu- 
dents and  instructors  have  been  changed  and 
influenced  by  the  habits  and  ideals  of  the  uni- 
versities and  the  cities.  Hence,  to  see  the 
American  college  town  in  all  its  pristine  sim- 
plicity and  beauty,  one  now  has  to  go  to  the 
new  New  England,  and  visit  such  institutions 
as  Oberlin,  Beloit,  Knox,  Iowa,  and  Colorado 


Introduction  33 

colleges,  concerning  which,  and  others  of  their 
type,  Mr.  Bryce  writes  : 

"  They  get  hold  of  a  multitude  of  poor  men  who 
might  never  resort  to  a  distant  place  for  education. 
They  set  learning  in  a  visible  form,  plain  indeed  and 
humble,  but  dignified  even  in  her  humility,  before  the 
eyes  of  a  rustic  people,  in  whom  the  love  of  knowledge, 
naturally  strong,  might  never  break  from  the  bud  into 
the  flower,  but  for  the  care  of  some  zealous  gardener. 
They  give  the  chance  of  rising  in  some  intellectual  walk 
of  life  to  many  a  strong  and  earnest  nature  who  might 
otherwise  have  remained  an  artisan  or  storekeeper,  and 
perhaps  failed  in  those  avocations."  ' 

New  England  has  a  railroad  mileage  greater 
in  proportion  to  its  population  and  area  than 
any  section  of  the  United  States.  Indeed,  it 
is  greater  than  that  of  any  European  country. 
In  1895,  there  were  11.77  i^iiles  of  railroad  for 
each  one  hundred  square  miles  of  territory, 
and  14.  II  miles  for  each  ten  thousand  inhabit- 
ants, the  proportion  in  Massachusetts  rising 
to  26.35  rniles  for  each  one  hundred  square 
miles.     The   same  year,   the    number  of  em- 

'  Chapter  cii.,  Bryce's  American  Commonwealth.  For  an  interest- 
ing and  significant  account  of  the  impression  made  by  one  of  the 
Western  Christian  colleges  upon  a  friendly  and  thoroughly  trained 
French  observer,  see  the  translation  of  an  article  by  Th.  Bentzon 
(Madame  Blanc)  in  the  Revue  des  Deux  Monde s,  printed  in  McClure's 
Magazine,  May,  1895. 
3 


34  Introduction 

ployes  engaged  in  railway  traffic  in  New  Eng- 
land was  60,593.  On  January  i,  1840,  New 
England  had  only  426  miles  of  railway.  Jan- 
uary I,  1895,  it  had  7,398  miles  of  road,  which 
reported  gross  earnings  of  $82,845,401,  and 
1 16,069,178  passengers  transported  during  the 
previous  year. 

The  significance  of  these  facts  is  apparent 
to  the  casual  traveller  through  New  England 
as  well  as  to  the  economist.  Nerves  of  steel 
and  iron  have  bound  urban  and  rural  popu- 
lations together,  made  the  cities  and  towns 
accessible  to  the  inland  trader,  farmer,  and 
producer,  and  the  country  districts  accessible 
to  the  wares  of  the  merchant  and  manufac- 
turer, and  to  the  lover  of  nature.  Suburban 
residence  for  the  urban  toiler  has  been  made 
possible  and  cheap,  while  New  England,  as  a 
whole,  has  been  transformed  from  an  agricul- 
tural and  seafaring  section  to  one  with  great 
and  most  varied  manufacturing  interests. 
Boston  has  come  to  be  next  to  the  largest 
centre  for  exports  in  the  country,  and  the  com- 
mercial and  industrial  as  well  as  the  intellect- 
ual capital  of  New  England. 

From  the  standpoint  of  aesthetics,  the  rail- 
road   station    in    the    average    New    England 


Introduction  35 

town  is  a  monstrosity,  although  in  all  fairness 
it  should  be  said  that  within  a  decade  there 
has  been  a  notable  improvement  in  this  respect. 
But  from  the  standpoint  of  economics  and 
social  science,  the  railway  station  is  subordi- 
nate only  to  the  church  and  the  school  in  its 
service  to  society ;  and  the  degree  of  civiliza- 
tion in  any  community  may  be  accurately  com- 
puted by  the  volume  and  variety  of  the  traffic 
done  with  its  station  agents.  If  one  is  desir- 
ous of  studying  the  New  England  town,  let 
him  frequent  the  platforms  of  the  railroad 
station  and  the  freight-house,  ascertain  how 
large  a  proportion  of  its  inhabitants  leave 
town  daily  to  do  business  in  the  adjacent  city, 
how  many  travel  even  farther  in  pursuit  of 
pleasure  or  on  business,  how  many  depart  on 
outings  that  imply  thrift  and  a  desire  for  recre- 
ation and  rest.  Let  him  study  the  bulk  of 
the  raw  material  as  it  comes  from  the  wool- 
markets  of  Europe  and  America,  from  the 
cotton  fields  of  the  South,  and  from  the  mines 
of  Alabama,  Pennsylvania,  and  Minnesota,  and 
then  inspect  it  as  it  goes  forth  again,  converted 
into  manifold  forms  of  useful  tools,  machinery, 
fabrics,  etc.,  and  he  will  not  lack  for  data  re- 
specting the  status  of  the  community.      If  he 


36  Introduction 

finds  that  pianos,  organs,  books,  pictures,  the 
latest  devices  of  sanitary  science,  bicycles,  etc., 
are  arriving,  he  may  justly  infer  that  the  in- 
habitants are  in  touch  with  the  outer  world 
and  eager  to  take  advantage  of  the  latest  dis- 
coveries of  men  of  science.  Nor  is  it  impru- 
dent to  assert  that  such  a  study  made  in  the 
average  New  England  town  will  indicate  eco- 
nomic wants,  and  their  satisfaction,  such  as  no 
communities  elsewhere  can  display. 

Compared  with  other  sections  of  the  country. 
New  England  has  railroads  which  are  better 
supervised  by  the  States,  more  honestly  con- 
structed, capitalized  and  administered,  and 
more  responsive  to  public  needs.  Concen- 
tration of  power  and  responsibility  in  the 
hands  of  the  few  goes  on  apace  in  New  Eng- 
land, as  well  as  elsewhere,  so  that  now  there 
are  only  four  railway  corporations  of  much  im- 
portance in  New  England.  But,  through  such 
governmental  agents  as  the  Massachusetts 
Board  of  Railroad  Commissioners  (organized 
in  1869,  and  the  model  for  similar  bodies  else- 
where in  the  nation),  the  people  still  retain  the 
whip-hand,  still  protect  the  rights  of  individuals, 
communities,  and  investors,  and  bring  about 
those  reductions  in  fare  and  freight  charges, 


Introduction  37 

and  those  Improvements  in  service,  which  pub- 
He  welfare  and  safety  demand. 

No  attempt — however  brief  or  superficial — 
to  describe  the  life  of  the  New  England  town 
of  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
especially  in  the  States  of  Massachusetts,  Con- 
necticut, and  Rhode  Island,  could  justifiably 
fail  to  note  the  transformation  —  economic, 
physical,  and  social — which  the  bicycle  and 
trolley  electric  railroad  have  wrought  in  the 
life  of  the  towns  of  those  States. 

New  England  capitalists  and  New  England 
inventors  were  the  first  to  put  on  the  market 
safety  bicycles  that  were  well  constructed, 
adapted  for  daily  use  or  pleasure,  and  reason- 
ably cheap,  and  New  England  still  retains 
the  lead  in  the  domestic  and  export  trade 
in  bicycles.  Naturally,  then,  New  England 
people  were  the  first  to  purchase  the  product 
of  their  own  factories.  Space  does  not  suffice 
to  indicate  here  how  general  now  is  the  use  of 
the  bicycle  even  in  the  remotest  hamlets,  and 
how  it  has  changed  modes  of  living.  Farm- 
ers' boys  and  girls  among  the  lakes  and  hills 
of  Maine  and  Vermont,  fishermen's  children 
on  the  sand-dunes  of  Cape  Cod,  run  their  er- 
rands, visit  their  neighbors,  and  get  their  daily 


38  Introduction 

sport  with  the  bicycle.  Artisans  and  profes- 
sional men  in  all  the  towns  and  cities  oro  to  and 
from  their  shops,  offices,  and  homes  on  steeds 
that  require  no  fodder,  and  while  doing  it  gain 
physical  exercise  and  mental  exhilaration  that 
transportation  in  the  old  ways  never  furnished. 
Horses  still  are  in  demand  for  sport  and 
draught  w^ork,  and  the  few  who  love  horses 
continue  to  breed  and  own  them.  But  for  the 
multitude  a  far  cheaper  and  more  tractable  kind 
of  steed  has  come,  one  which  rivals  the  locomo- 
tive as  well  as  the  horse  and  forces  steam-railway 
managers  to  face  serious  problems,  mechanical 
and  fiscal. 

As  to  the  electric  street  railway,  perhaps  a 
few  facts  relative  to  Massachusetts  may  indi- 
cate a  state  of  affairs  that  to  some  extent  is 
typical  now  of  the  section,  and  will  become 
more  so  as  population  in  New  Hampshire, 
Maine,  and  Vermont  drifts  townward. 

From  i860  to  1889,  the  number  of  street-rail- 
way companies  in  Massachusetts  increased  only 
from  twenty  to  forty-six,  and  the  mileage  from 
eighty-eight  to  574,  the  motor  force  of  course 
being  horse-power.  From  1889  to  1897,  the 
number  of  companies  increased  from  forty-six 
to  ninety-three,  and  the  mileage  from  547  to 


Introduction  39 

141 3,  the  motor  power  being  almost  exclu- 
sively electric.  During  the  same  period,  the 
number  of  passengers  carried  on  the  ten  main 
lines  increased  from  148,189,403  in  1889,  to 
308,684,224  in  1897.  The  total  capital  in- 
vested in  these  street  railways  now  amounts  to 
$63, 1 1 2,800,  and,  in  1 897,  earned  7.  j^  per  cent, 
on  the  average. 

So  much  for  statistics  which  are  impressive 
in  themselves.  But  if  one  would  appreciate 
the  magnitude  of  this  traffic,  and  the  radical 
transformation  which  the  new  power  and  im- 
proved service  have  wrought  in  the  life  of  the 
people  who  patronize  these  railroads,  he  must 
do  more  than  compare  statistics.  He  must 
note  the  result  of  making  the  residence  in  the 
suburb  and  the  workshop  in  the  city  accessible 
to  a  degree  that  the  steam  railway  cannot  ex- 
pect to  duplicate,  of  giving  city  dwellers  oppor- 
tunities to  journey  seaward  and  hillward  at  a 
trifling  expense,  of  providing  residents  of  the 
villages  with  inexpensive  transportation  to  the 
towns  and  residents  of  the  towns  with  trans- 
portation to  the  cities,  of  cultivating  the  know- 
ledge of  and  love  for  open-air  life  and  nature 
among  city  dwellers  and  of  enlarging  the  social 
horizon  and  area  of  observation  of  the  villager, 


40  Introduction 

of  giving  a  poor  man  a  vehicle  that  transports 
him  with  a  speed  and  a  sense  of  pleasure  that 
vies  with  that  of  the  high-priced  trotter  of  the 
wealthy  horseman,  of  giving  to  society  a  cen- 
tripetal force  that  tends  to  take  city  workers 
countryward  at  a  time  when  other  social  forces, 
centrifugal  in  their  tendency,  are  drawing  him 
cityward. 

Naught  would  occasion  more  bewilderment 
to  the  ancient  residents  of  Marblehead,  Hing- 
ham,  or  Plymouth,  could  they  return  to  their 
former  places  of  abode,  than  the  "  Broomstick 
Trains"  which  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes's  fancy 
pictured  thus  : 

"  On  every  stick  there  's  a  witch  astride, — 
The  string  you  see  to  her  leg  is  tied. 
She  will  do  a  mischief  if  she  can. 
But  the  string  is  held  by  a  careful  man, 
And  whenever  the  evil-minded  witch 
Would  cut  some  caper,  he  gives  a  twitch. 
As  for  the  hag,  you  can't  see  her. 
But  hark  !  you  can  hear  her  black  cat's  purr, 
And  now  and  then,  as  a  car  goes  by. 
You  may  catch  a  gleam  from  her  wicked  eye." 

These  trains  whirl  through  the  crooked  streets 
with  a  mysterious,  awe-compelling  power,  that 
would  suggest  witchery  were   it  not   for  the 


Introduction  41 

clang  of  their  alarm  bells,  and  the  knowledge 
that  fares  must  be  paid.  They  disturb  the 
quiet  and  solemnity  of  many  an  ancient  village, 
and  have  brought  knowledge  of  evil  as  well  as 
of  good  to  many  a  youth.  What  railways  and 
steamship  lines  have  done  in'bringing  peoples 
of  all  climes  and  continents  nearer  together,  and 
thus  at  once  widened  men's  area  of  knowledge 
and  sympathy,  and  contracted  the  physical  area 
of  the  earth,  this  the  electrically  propelled 
motor  is  doing  on  a  smaller  scale  for  the  people 
of  the  towns  of  the  ancient  commonwealths  of 
New  England. 

In  ante-bellum  days.  New  England  and  the 
South  were,  perhaps,  most  unlike  in  their  at- 
titude toward  manufacturing,  and  the  differ- 
ence was  one  that  meant  far  more  than  a  mere 
incident  of  difference  of  climate  or  a  difference 
of  opinion  as  to  sectional  or  federal  fiscal 
policy.  The  art  of  manufacturing,  as  New 
Englanders  had  practised  it  for  generations  be- 
fore what  is  now  known  as  the  "  factory  system  " 
developed,  had  been  based  on  a  universal 
recognition  of  the  nobility  of  labor,  the  neces- 
sity for  personal  initiative,  and  the  duty  of 
thrift.  Toil  was  considered  honorable  for  men 
and  women  alike.      Every  hillside  stream  was 


42  Introduction 

set  at  work  turning  the  wheels  of  countless 
mills.  Yankee  ingenuity  was  given  free  play 
in  the  invention  of  appliances,  and  Yankee  in- 
itiative saw  to  it  that  after  the  raw  material 
was  converted  into  the  finished  product,  mar- 
kets were  found  in  the  newer  settlements  of 
the  Interior  and  West,  or  in  Europe  and  Asia. 
Many  a  farmer  was  a  manufacturer  as  well. 
Home  industries  flourished,  and  no  month  in 
the  year  was  too  inclement  for  toil  and  its 
reward. 

With  the  application  of  steam  power  to  the 
transportation  of  freight  and  passengers,  with 
the  invention  of  the  spinning-jenny  and  the 
perfecting  of  the  cotton  loom  and  the  develop- 
ment of  the  "  factory  system "  of  specialized 
and  divided  labor.  New  England,  quick  to  per- 
ceive wherein  her  future  prosperity  lay,  at  once 
leaped  forward  to  seize  the  opportunity,  and 
the  relative  superiority  thus  early  gained  she 
has  not  lost,  even  though  other  sections  more 
favorably  situated  as  to  accessible  supplies  of 
fuel  and  raw  materials  have,  in  the  meantime, 
awakened  and  developed. 

Whether  judged  by  the  legislation  govern- 
ing their  operation,  their  structural  adaptability 
to   the  work  to   be   done,  their  equipment   of 


Introduction  43 

machinery,  the  variety  and  quaHty  of  their 
product,  or  the  intelHgence  and  earning  ca- 
pacity of  their  operatives,  the  New  England 
factories  can  safely  challenge  comparison  with 
those  of  any  in  the  world,  and  the  typical  fac- 
tory towns  of  New  England,  whether  along 
her  largest  rivers,  such  as  Lowell  and  Hart- 
ford, or  at  tide-water,  as  Fall  River  and  Bridge- 
port, or  nestled  among  the  hills,  as  North 
Adams  or  St.  Johnsbury,  are  the  frequent  sub- 
ject of  study  by  the  deputed  agents  of  Euro- 
pean governments  or  manufacturers,  anxious 
to  ascertain  what  it  is  that  makes  the  Ameri- 
can manufacturer  so  dangerous  a  competitor 
in  the  markets  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa. 

Few  more  interesting  movements  in  the  his- 
tory of  man's  upward  struggle  have  been 
chronicled  than  the  successive  waves  of  immi- 
gration which  have  swept  into  the  factories  of 
towns  like  Lowell,  Massachusetts,  and  Man- 
chester, New  Hampshire.  First  came  from  the 
hill  towns  and  farms  the  daughters  of  the  origi- 
nal English,  Irish,  and  Scotch  settlers — women 
like  Lucy  Larcom, — then  the  Irish,  specially 
imported  from  Ireland,  and  then  the  French 
from  Canada.  The  Irish  came  when  the  origi- 
nal stock  became,  in   its  own  estimation,   too 


44  Introduction 

select  for  daily  toil  in  the  factory.  The  French 
came  at  an  opportune  time  for  the  employers, 
when  the  Irish  were  also  stirred  by  loftier  am- 
bitions. And  it  is  already  apparent  that, 
whereas  the  French  came,  at  first,  only  to  win 
money  to  take  back  to  Canada,  now  they  are 
settlino^  down  to  become  citizens  as  well 
as  residents,  aspiring  to  higher  and  other 
realms  of  activity — in  short,  getting  ready  to 
give  way  in  turn  to  some  other  nationality. 
Of  course,  nothing  just  stated  should  be  inter- 
preted to  imply  that  the  ideals  of  New  Eng- 
land respecting  the  honorable  nature  of  toil 
have  changed,  or  that  her  factory  operatives 
have  ceased  to  be  men  of  all  races  including 
the  English.  She  has,  however,  witnessed  or 
rather  been  the  scene  of  a  remarkable  process 
of  assimilation  and  transformation  of  races 
such  as  none  of  the  manufacturing  towns  of 
England  have  seen. 

Thus  far,  consideration  has  been  given  to 
those  factors  in  the  life  of  the  community 
which  it  may  truthfully  be  said  are  to  be  found 
in  a  large  majority  of  the  towns  and  villages 
of  New  England.  It  would  be  necessary,  for 
a  complete  study  of  the  New  England  town 
at  its  best,  to  include  other  factors,  such  as  the 


Introduction  45 

savings-bank,  the  local  lodges  of  the  fraternal, 
secret  orders,  the  co-operative  bank — known  in 
the  Middle  States  as  the  building  loan  associa- 
tion,— the  daily  or  weekly  local  newspaper,  and 
the  gossip  and  wisdom  retailed  by  the  habitues 
of  the  "  village  store,"  which,  in  many  of  the 
smaller  towns,  serves  as  the  clearing-house 
of  ideas,  local  and  national.  Nor  could  any 
thorough  study  of  the  New  England  town  as 
an  institution  fail  to  note  at  least  the  beneficent 
effect  which  the  exclusion  of  shops  where  in- 
toxicating liquors  are  retailed  has  had  upon 
all  of  the  States,  thanks  to  that  measure  of 
prohibition  which  has  been  made  possible 
through  statutory  or  legislative  enactment. 
So  that,  in  the  towns  of  the  agricultural  districts 
of  New  England,  the  legalized  dram-shop  is 
unknown,  as  are  all  the  attendant  moral  and 
economic  evils  that  follow  in  its  train  when  the 
traffic  is  tolerated.  Nor  is  the  possibility  of  ex- 
cluding the  saloon  from  larger  towns — manu- 
facturing and  residential — to  be  gainsaid  in 
view  of  the  record  established  by  such  cities  as 
Cambridge,  Somerville,  Chelsea,  Brookline,  and 
Newton,  Massachusetts.  In  fact,  Cambridge, 
with  its  more  than  eighty  thousand  inhabitants, 
for  nearly  twelve  years  now  has  enforced  local 


46  Introduction 

prohibition  in  a  way  to  make  its  method  of 
doing  so  a  model  for  the  country  ;  the  secret  of 
the  method  by  which  it  secures  an  annual 
"  No-license  vote  "  and  a  non-partisan  adminis- 
tration of  all  city  affairs  being,  in  short,  the 
union  of  temperance  men  of  all  degrees  of 
abstinence,  Jews  and  Christians  of  all  sects, 
and  citizens  of  all  national  parties  on  the 
simple  platform — "  No  saloons,  and  no  tests 
for  local  officials  other  than  fitness,  and  sound- 
ness on  questions  of  local  policy." 

But  there  is  one  factor  in  the  life  of  very 
many  of  the  New  England  towns  to-day  that 
cannot  be  passed  by  without  some  allusion. 
It  is  the  town  or  city  library.  In  many  in- 
stances the  gift  of  some  private  donor,  who 
was  either  born  in  the  town,  and  making  a 
home  and  fortune  elsewhere  desired  to  testify 
that  he  was  not  unmindful  of  ancestral  en- 
vironment and  of  youthful  privileges,  or  else 
accumulated  a  fortune  in  the  town  and  de- 
sired both  to  perpetuate  his  memory  and  to 
render  a  public  service,  the  library  building 
usually  stands  as  a  token  of  that  marked  in- 
terest in  public  education  and  public  welfare 
which  Americans  of  wealth  reveal  by  gifts, 
generous  to   a  degree  unknown  elsewhere   in 


Introduction  47 

Christendom,  competent  European  judges  be- 
ing witnesses.  i\ppleton's  Animal  Encyclo- 
pedia records  a  total  of  $27,000,000  given  to 
religious,  educational,  and  philanthropic  institu- 
tions in  the  United  States,  in  sums  of  $5000  or 
more,  by  individuals,  as  donations  or  bequests 
during  the  year  1896.  In  this  list  are  recorded 
gifts,  amounting  to  $195,000,  to  establish  or 
to  endow  town  libraries  in  New  England. 

Sometimes  the  major  portion  of  the  contents 
of  the  library  building  is  also  the  gift  of  the 
generous  donor  of  the  edifice,  but,  usually,  the 
town  assumes  responsibility  for  the  equipment 
and  maintenance  of  the  library,  deriving 
the  necessary  income  from  appropriations 
voted  by  the  citizens  in  town-meetings  or  by 
aldermen  and  councilmen,  members  of  the 
local  legislature,  and  assessed  and  collected 
pro  rata  according  to  the  valuation  of  property, 
just  as  all  other  town  or  city  taxes  are  col- 
lected. But,  whether  the  gift  of  some  private 
individual  or  the  creation  and  property  of  the 
town,  the  fact  remains  that  the  handsomest 
public  buildings  in  New  England  to-day  are 
the  public-library  buildings,  and  in  no  depart- 
ment of  civic  life  are  the  New  England  States 
and  towns  so  far  in  advance  of  those  of  other 


48  Introduction 

sections  of  the  country  as  in  their  generous 
annual  appropriations  for  the  maintenance  of 
this  form  of  individual  and  civic  betterment. 
New  Hampshire  is  to  be  credited  with  the  first 
law  permitting  towns  to  establish  and  to  main- 
tain libraries  by  general  taxation.  This  she 
did  in  1849.  Massachusetts  followed  in  1854, 
Vermont  in  1865,  Connecticut  in  1881.  Bos- 
ton, however,  deserves  credit  for  being  the 
pioneer  in  public  taxation  for  a  municipal 
library,  and  to  the  Hon.  Josiah  Quincy,  grand- 
father of  its  present  mayor,  who,  in  1847, 
proposed  to  the  City  Council  that  they  request 
the  Legislature  for  authority  to  lay  a  tax  to 
establish  a  free  library,  belongs  the  honor  of 
having  founded  in  America  a  form  of  muni- 
cipal and  town  activity,  than  which,  as  Stan- 
ley Jevons  says,  in  his  book  Methods  of  Social 
Reform,  "  there  is  probably  no  mode  of  ex- 
pending public  money  which  gives  a  more 
extraordinary  and  immediate  return  in  utility 
and  enjoyment." 

Already,  library  administrators  and  far- 
sighted  educators  and  publicists  foresee  a  time 
when  it  will  be  as  compulsory  for  towns  to  es- 
tablish and  support  free  public  libraries  as  it 
now  is  compulsory  for  them  to  establish  and 


Introduction  49 

support  free  public  schools.  Massachusetts, 
perhaps,  approaches  nearer  that  ideal  now  than 
any  other  State,  only  ten  of  its  353  cities  and 
towns  being  without  public  libraries. 

Fortunately  for  the  sociologist,  the  historian, 
the  economist,  and  the  lover  of  literature,  the 
inhabitants  of  New  England  have  not  failed  to 
chronicle  in  various  forms  and  ways  the  deeds 
and  thoughts  of  their  contemporaries.  Thus 
there  is  a  large  class  of  historic  documents  of 
which  Bradford's  history  of  Plimoth  Plantation 
is  the  magntLni  opus.  Then  there  are  innumer- 
able town  histories, — of  which  the  four-volume 
history  of  Hingham,  Massachusetts,  is  a  model, 
— family  genealogies,  sermons,  diaries,  volumes 
of  correspondence,  such  as  that  which  passed 
between  John  Adams  and  his  wife,  memorial 
addresses,  such  as  Emerson  and  G.  W.  Curtis 
delivered  at  Concord,  and  Webster  and  Rob- 
ert C.  Winthrop  at  Plymouth,  which  inform 
and  often  inspire  all  who  patiently  explore 
their  contents.  Last,  but  not  least,  there  are 
the  products  of  New  England's  representative 
authors,  who  in  prose  or  poetry  have  recorded 
indelibly  the  higher  life  of  their  own  or  of 
passing  generations.  In  short,  a  literature- 
loving  people  has  given  birth  to  literature,  and 


50  Introduction 

the  New  England  town  of  the  past  can  never 
totally  fade  out  of  the  memory  of  future  gen- 
erations so  long  as  men  and  women  are  left 
to  read  the  poetry  of  Longfellow,  Whittier, 
Holmes,  and  Aldrich,  Lowell's  Biglow  Papers^ 
Harriet  Beecher  Stowe's  Oldtown  Folks  and  A 
Minister  s  Wooing,  the  short  stories  of  Sarah 
Orne  Jewett,  Mary  E.  Wilkins,  Rose  Terry 
Cooke,  Alice  Brown,  Maria  L.  Pool,  and  Jane 
G.  Austin,  the  prose  romances  of  Hawthorne 
and  F.  J.  Stimson,  and  the  histories  of  Palfrey, 
Bancroft,  Parkman,  and  Fiske. 

That  New  Englanders  in  the  past  have  been 
and  even  now  are  provincial,  is  the  indictment 
of  Europeans  and  of  some  Americans.  That 
they  have  developed  reason  at  the  expense  of 
imagination,  utility  at  the  expense  of  beauty, 
is  also  afifirmed.  Their  Puritan  ancestors  are 
the  butt  of  the  ridicule  of  the  caricaturist,  of 
ultra-Liberal  preachers  and  devotees  of  materi- 
alistic science,  and  of  those  who  have  never 
read  history,  European  or  American.  No  less 
an  authority  than  Matthew  Arnold  has  de- 
scribed the  life  of  New  England  as  "  uninter- 
esting."  To  all  such  critics,  the  New  Englander 
can  and  will  reply  with  dignity  and  force  when 
proper  occasion  offers,  but  this  is  not  the  place 


Introduction  51 

even  to  summarize  his  argument.  Suffice  it  to 
say  that  the  children  of  New  England  are  ever 
returning  to  her.  They  sojourn  for  a  time  in 
Europe,  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  in  South- 
ern California,  and  in  Hawaii.  They  find 
more  salubrious  climes,  more  beautiful  works 
of  ecclesiastical  and  municipal  art,  better  mu- 
nicipal government,  and  sometimes  greater 
opportunities  for  investment  of  capital  and 
ability  and  choicer  circles  of  society  than  those 
which  exist  in  the  towns  in  which  they  were 
born  or  reared.  But  in  due  time  the  yearning 
for  the  hills,  valleys  and  seacoast  of  rocky  and 
rigorous  New  England,  for  the  established  in- 
stitutions, the  generally  diffused  intelligence, 
the  equality  of  opportunity,  the  sane  standards 
of  worth,  and  the  inspiring  historical  traditions 
of  the  early  home  becomes  too  strong  to  be 
resisted  longer,  and  back  to  the  homestead 
they  come — some  on  annual  visits,  some  as 
often  as  the  exchequer  permits,  some  never  to 
depart.  New  England  has  thousands  of  citi- 
zens to-day  who,  having  either  made,  or  failed 
to  make,  their  fortunes  in  the  West,  have  re- 
turned to  New  Enofland  to  dwell.  Once  a 
New  Englander,  always  a  New  Englander,  in 
spirit  if  not  in  residence..    Travel  abroad,  or 


52  Introduction 

residence  elsewhere,  may  modify  the  austerity, 
broaden  the  sympathy,  poHsh  the  manners,  and 
stimulate  the  imagination  of  the  New  Eng- 
lander,  but  it  never  radically  alters  his  views 
on  the  great  issues  of  life  and  death,  or  makes 
him  less  of  a  democrat  or  less  of  a  devotee  of 
Wisdom. 


'^mm, 


HISTORIC  TOWNS  OF 
NEW  ENGLAND 


PORTLAND 
"THE   GEM   OF   CASCO   BAY" 

By  SAMUEL  T.   PICKARD 

PORTLAND  enjoys  a  peculiar  distinction 
among  New  England  cities,  not  only  by 
reason  of  the  natural  advantages  of  her  loca- 
tion, but  because  of  the  historical  events  of 
which  she  has  been  the  theatre,  and  the  men 
of  mark  in  literature,  art,  and  statesmanship 
whom  she  has  produced.  Among  the  indenta- 
tions of  the  Atlantic  coast  there  is  no  bay 
which  presents  a  greater  wealth  and  variety  of 
charming  scenery,  in  combination  with  the  ad- 
vantages of  a  safe  and  capacious  harbor,  than 
that    on    which    Portland    is    situated.       It    is 

53 


54  Portland 

thickly  studded  with  islands  which  are  of  most 
picturesque  forms,  presenting  beetling  cliffs, 
sheltered  coves,  pebbly  beaches,  wooded 
heights,  arid  wide,  green  lawns  dotted  with 
summer  cottages.  It  is  of  the  beauty  of  this 
bay  that  Whittier,  who  was  familiar  with  its 
scenery,  sings  in  TJie  Rajiger  : 

'*  Nowhere  fairer,  sweeter,  rarer. 
Does  the  golden-locked  fruit-bearer 

Through  his  painted  woodlands  stray  ; 
Than  where  hillside  oaks  and  beeches 
Overlook  the  long  blue  reaches. 
Silver  coves  and  pebbled  beaches, 

And  green  isles  of  Casco  Bay  ; 

Nowhere  day,  for  delay, 
With  a  tenderer  look  beseeches, 

'  Let  me  with  my  charmed  earth  stay  ! '  " 

The  peninsula  upon  which  Portland  is  lo- 
cated is  almost  an  island.  It  is  nearly  three 
miles  long,  and  has  an  average  width  of  three 
quarters  of  a  mile — making  it  in  area  the 
smallest  city  in  the  United  States,  and  the 
most  compactly  settled,  for  its  forty  thousand 
inhabitants  occupy  almost  every  available 
building  spot.  At  each  extremity  of  the  pen- 
insula is  a  hill  on  the  summit  of  which  is  a 
wide    public    promenade,    affording    charming 


56  Portland 

views — to  the  east,  of  the  bay,  the  islands,  and 
the  blue  sea  beyond  ;  to  the  west  and  north- 
west, of  the  White  Mountain  range,  all  the 
peaks  of  which  are  visible,  the  intervening  dis- 
tance being  about  eighty  miles.  The  Western 
Promenade  is  the  favorite  resort  at  sunset ;  the 
Eastern  has  charms  for  all  hours  of  the  day. 
Both  can  be  reached  by  electric  railways. 

In  1614,  Captain  John  Smith,  of  Pocahontas 
fame,  came  prospecting  along  this  coast,  and 
gave  the  name  to  Cape  Elizabeth,  which  it  still 
bears,  in  honor  of  the  Virgin  Queen,  then  re- 
cently deceased.  The  first  settlers,  George 
Cleeves  and  Richard  Tucker,  came  hither  in 
1632,  and  the  settlement  was  known  as  Casco 
until  the  name  was  changed  to  Falmouth  in 
1658  ;  it  was  incorporated  as  Portland  in  1785. 
There  were  but  few  settlers  in  the  first  forty 
years,  and  these  lived  in  amity  with  the  In- 
dians until  the  time  of  King  Philip's  War. 

In  1676,  the  settlement  was  utterly  de- 
stroyed by  the  savages,  and  all  who  were  not 
killed  were  carried  into  captivity.  One  of  the 
killed  was  Thomas  Brackett,  an  ancestor  of 
the  statesman  who  in  these  later  days  has 
made  the  name  famous — Thomas  Brackett 
Reed.       Mrs.  Brackett  was  carried  by  the  In- 


Portland  57 

dians  to  Canada,  where  she  died  in  captivity. 
Two  of  her  grandchildren  came  back  to  Fal- 
mouth when  the  place  was  rebuilt  after  the 
second  destruction  by  the  French  and  Indians, 
in  May,  1690.  In  1689,  a  large  body  of  French 
and  Indians  threatened  the  town.  They  were 
routed  in  Deering's  Woods  by  troops  from  Ply- 
mouth Colony,  commanded  by  Major  Church. 
Eleven  settlers  were  killed  and  a  large  number 
wounded.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  Speaker 
Reed  is  also  a  descendant  of  the  first  settler, 
Cleeves.  There  is  something  remarkable  in 
the  persistency  with  which  the  descendants  of 
the  pioneers  returned  to  the  spot  where  there 
had  been  complete  and  repeated  massacres  of 
their  ancestors.  There  are  many  families  in 
Portland  beside  the  one  mentioned  above  who 
are  descended  from  the  pioneers  who  were 
killed  or  driven  off  by  the  savages. 

The  first  minister  of  Falmouth  was  the  Rev- 
erend George  Burroughs,  who  escaped  the 
massacre  of  1676  by  fleeing  to  one  of  the  is- 
lands in  the  bay.  Unfortunately  for  him,  be- 
fore the  place  was  rebuilt  he  removed  to 
Salem  ;  he  was  too  independent,  however,  to 
suit  the  dominant  clergy,  and  was  hanged  as  a 
wizard  in   1692,   on  charges  incredibly  ridicu- 


5S  Portland 

lous.  The  speech  made  by  this  worthy  man 
on  the  scaffold  brought  the  people  to  their 
senses  and  ended  the  witchcraft  craze.  His 
descendants  also  went  back  to  Falmouth  and 
are  represented  in  many  families  of  the  pre- 
sent city  of  Portland,  who  take  no  shame  from 
the  hanoring-  of  their  ancestor. 

So  thorough  was  the  second  destruction  of 
the  place  in  1690,  that  no  one  was  left  to  bury 
the  victims  of  the  slaughter.  Their  bleached 
bones  were  gathered  and  buried  more  than  two 
years  after  by  Sir  William  Phips,  while  on  his 
way  from  Boston  to  build  a  fort  at  Pemaquid. 
The  settlement  of  the  peninsula  was  resumed 
after  the  treaty  of  peace  concluded  at  Utrecht 
in  1 713,  and  for  sixty  years  thereafter  the 
growth  of  the  place  was  rapid.  When  the 
town  was  bombarded  and  burned  by  a  British 
squadron  in  October,  1775,  there  were  nearly 
three  hundred  families  made  homeless — about 
three  quarters  of  the  entire  population.  For 
nine  hours,  four  ships  anchored  in  the  harbor 
threw  an  incessant  shower  of  grape-shot,  red- 
hot  cannon-balls,  and  bombs  upon  the  defence- 
less town,  wdiich  had  shown  its  sympathy  with 
the  patriot  cause  in  a  practical  way  after  the 
battles  of   Lexineton  and  Bunker  Hill.      The 


6o  Portland 

spirited  citizens  of  Falmouth  might  have 
avoided  the  bombardment  by  giving  up  a  few 
cannon  and  small-arms  ;  but  this,  in  town  meet- 
ing, they  refused  to  do,  even  when  they  saw 
the  loaded  guns  and  mortars  trained  upon 
them  at  short  range,  and  knew  that  Captain 
Mowatt  had  a  special  grudge  against  the 
place  because  of  an  insult  put  upon  him  by 
some  of  the  citizens  a  few  months  earlier. 
The  spirit  of  the  town  was  not  broken  by  the 
terrible  punishment  it  received.  A  few  days 
after  Mowatt  sailed  away,  while  the  ruins  were 
still  smoking,  a  British  man-of-war  came  into 
the  harbor  to  forbid  the  erection  of  batteries, 
and  the  demand  was  met  by  the  throwing  up 
of  earthworks  and  the  placing  of  guns,  which 
forced  the  immediate  departure  of  the  ship. 
The  lines  of  these  earthworks  are  still  to  be 
traced  at  Fort  Allen  Park,  a  beautiful  pleasure 
ground  on  Munjoy  overlooking  the  harbor, 
and  they  are  preserved  with  care  as  a  relic  of 
Revolutionary  times.  Another  relic  is  a  can- 
non-ball thrown  from  Mowatt's  fleet,  which 
lodged  in  the  First  Parish  meeting-house,  and 
is  now  to  be  seen  in  the  ceiling-  of  the  church 
which  occupies  the  same  site.  From  this  ball 
depends  the  large  central  chandelier.     There 


Portland  6i 

was  an  incident  of  the  bombardment  which 
illustrates  the  simplicity  and  coolness  of  a 
heroine  whose  name  deserves  a  place  beside 
that  of  Barbara  Frietchie.  The  fashionable 
tavern  of  the  town  was  kept  by  Dame  Alice 
Greele,  and  here,  during  the  whole  Revolu- 
tionary period,  the  committee  of  public  safety 
met,  the  judges  held  their  courts,  and  political 
conventions  had  their  sessions.  It  was  here 
that  the  citizens  in  town  meeting  heroically 
voted  to  stand  the  bombardment  rather  than 
give  up  the  guns  demanded  by  Mowatt.  But 
after  making  this  brave  decision  they  hastily 
packed  up  all  their  portable  possessions  and 
removed  their  families  to  places  of  safety, 
some  not  stopping  short  of  inland  towns,  and 
others  finding  shelter  under  the  lee  of  a  high 
cliff  that  used  to  be  at  the  corner  of  Casco  and 
Cumberland  Streets,  at  no  great  distance  from 
their  homes.  Braver  than  the  bravest  of  the 
men  of  Falmouth,  Dame  Alice  would  not  de- 
sert her  tavern,  although  its  position  was  so 
dangerously  exposed  that  every  house  in  its 
vicinity  was  destroyed  by  bursting  bombs  and 
heated  cannon-balls.  Throughout  that  terri- 
ble day  she  stood  at  her  post,  and  with  buck- 
ets of   water   extinguished    the   fires    on    her 


62  Portland 

premises  as  fast  as  kindled.  When  Mowatt 
beg^an  to  throw  red-hot  cannon-balls,  one  of 
them  fell  into  the  dame's  back  yard  among 
some  chips,  which  were  set  on  fire.  She 
picked  up  the  ball  in  a  pan,  and  as  she  tossed 
it  into  the  street,  she  said  to  a  neighbor  who 
was  passing  :  "  They  will  have  to  stop  firing 
soon,  for  they  have  got  out  of  bombs  and  are 
making  new  balls,  and  can't  wait  for  them 
to  cool ! "  Portland  ought  to  mark  with  a 
bronze  tablet  the  site  of  Alice  Greele's  tavern. 
The  building  stood  until  1846  at  the  corner 
of  Congress  and  Hampshire  Streets.  It  was 
then  removed  to  Washington  Street. 

Portland  had  a  rapid  growth  of  population 
and  increase  in  wealth  during  the  European 
disturbances  caused  by  the  ambition  of  Napo- 
leon. The  carrying-trade  of  the  world  was 
almost  monopolized  by  neutral  American  bot- 
toms, and  ship-building  became  then,  as  it 
continued  to  be  for  a  long  time  afterward,  a 
leading  industry  along  the  Maine  coast.  Great 
fortunes  were  made  by  Portland  ship-owners. 
Many  fine  old-fashioned  mansions  that  now 
ornament  Congress,  High,  State,  Spring,  and 
Danforth  Streets,  were  built  by  merchants  in 
the  first  years  of  the  present  century,  and  are 


63 


FIRST  PARISH  CHURCH. 

CONTAINING   THE    MOWATT    CANNON-BALL. 


64  Portland 

reminders  of  the  peculiar  conditions  of  that 
time.  A  sharp  check  to  the  rising  tide  of 
prosperity  was  given  by  the  embargo  act  of 
1807.  After  the  peace  of  181 5,  the  trade  with 
the  West  Indies  grew  into  great  importance, 
and  for  fifty  years  was  a  leading  factor  in  the 
commerce  of  Portland.  Lumber  and  fish  were 
the  chief  exports,  and  return  cargoes  of  sugar 
and  molasses  made  this  the  principal  market 
for  those  commodities — the  imports  in  these 
lines  for  many  years  exceeding  those  at  New 
York  and  Boston.  West  India  molasses  was  dis- 
tilled in  large  quantities  into  New  England  rum, 
until  the  temperance  reform,  under  the  lead  of 
the  Portland  philanthropist,  Neal  Dow,  closed 
up  the  distilleries  ;  in  their  place  came  sugar 
factories  and  refineries  which  turned  out  a  more 
wholesome  product.  But  about  thirty  years 
ago,  changes  in  the  methods  of  making  sugar 
caused  the  loss  of  this  industry  to  Portland. 

The  development  of  the  canning  business 
has  of  late  years  been  an  important  feature 
of  the  industrial  prosperity  of  Maine,  owing 
partly  to  the  fact  that  the  climate  and  soil  of 
this  State  produce  a  quality  of  sweet  corn  that 
cannot  be  matched  in  other  States,  and  also  to 
the  fact  that  the  system  of  canning  now  in  use 


Portland  65 

was  a  Portland  invention.  All  over  the  in- 
terior of  Maine  may  be  found  corn  factories 
owned  by  Portland  merchants,  and,  on  the 
coast,  canneries  of  lobsters  and  other  products 
of  the  fields  and  fisheries  of  Maine, 

Portland  is  the  winter  seaport  of  the  Cana- 
das,  and  several  lines  of  steamships  find  car- 
goes of  Western  produce  at  this  port.  For 
this  business  the  port  has  excellent  facilities, 
as  it  is  the  terminus  of  the  Grand  Trunk  Rail- 
way system,  which  has  its  other  terminus  at 
Chicago,  There  is  another  line  to  Montreal, 
through  the  White  Mountain  Notch,  which, 
like  the  Grand  Trunk,  owes  its  existence  to 
Portland  enterprise.  Of  late  years  the  lakes 
and  forests  and  sea-coast  of  Maine  have,  to  a 
marked  degree,  become  the  pleasure-ground 
of  the  Union,  and,  naturally,  Portland  is  the 
distributing  point  for  the  rapidly  increasing 
summer  travel  in  this  direction.  Its  lines  of 
railway  stretch  northward  and  eastward  to 
regions  abounding  in  fish  and  game  ;  the 
White  Hills  of  New  Hampshire  and  the 
Green  Mountains  of  Vermont  are  within  easy 
reach.  Steamers  from  this  port  ply  along  the 
whole  picturesque  coast  to  New  Brunswick 
and      Nova     Scotia.       During     the     summer 


66  Portland 

months,  eight  or  ten  pleasure  steamers  make 
trips  between  the  city  and  the  islands  of 
Casco  Bay,  furnishing  a  great  variety  of  pleas- 
urable excursions.  These  islands,  except  the 
smallest  of  them,  are  the  summer  homes  of  a 
multitude  of  families — many  of  them  from 
Canada  and  from  the  Western  States. 

The  ancient  Eastern  Cemetery,  on  the 
southern  slope  of  Munjoy,  is  the  burying- 
place  of  the  pioneers,  including  the  victims  of 
the  French  and  Indian  massacres  of  two  cen- 
turies ago.  The  graves  most  frequently  visited 
are  those  of  the  captains  of  the  U.  S.  brig 
Enterprise  and  His  Majesty's  brig  Boxer,  both 
of  whom  were  killed  in  the  naval  engagement 
off  this  coast,  September  5,1813.  By  their  side 
lies  Lieutenant  Waters,  mortally  wounded  in 
the  same  action.  The  poet  Longfellow  was  in 
his  seventh  year  at  the  time  of  this  fight,  and  his 
memory  of  it  is  enshrined  in  Afy  Lost  Youth  : 

"  I  remember  the  sea-fight  far  away, 
How  it  thundered  o'er  the  tide  ! 
And  the  dead  captains  as  they  lay 
In  their  graves,  o'erlooking  the  tranquil  bay, 
Where  they  in  battle  died." 

Commodore  Edward  Preble,  of  Tripoli  fame, 
and  Rear-Admiral  Alden,  who  fought  at  Vera 


u.       t 


^»=9S" 


68  Portland 

Cruz,  New  Orleans,  and  Mobile,  both  Port- 
landers,  are  buried  here.  There  is  also  a 
monument  commemorating  the  gallant  Lieu- 
tenant Henry  Wadsworth,  who  fell  before  Tri- 
poli in  1804, — a  volunteer  in  a  desperate  and 
tragic  enterprise.  He  was  a  brother  of  Long- 
fellow's mother,  and  a  new  lustre  has  been 
added  to  his  name  by  the  nephew  who  bore  it. 
In  this  ground  also,  but  unmarked,  are  the 
graves  of  the  victims  of  the  French  and  Indian 
siege  and  massacre  of  1690,  and  of  the  eleven 
men  killed  in  the  more  fortunate  battle  of  the 
previous  year. 

The  first  house  in  Portland  built  entirely  of 
brick  was  erected  in  1 785,  by  General  Peleg 
Wadsworth,  who  was  Adjutant-General  of  Mas- 
sachusetts during  the  Revolution  ;  it  is  now 
known  as  the  Longfellow  house,  and  stands 
next  above  the  Preble  House,  on  Congress 
Street.  The  poet  was  not  born  in  this  house, 
but  was  brought  to  it  as  an  infant,  and  it  was 
his  home  until  his  marriage,  in  183 1.  It  is  now 
owned  and  occupied  by  his  sister,  Mrs.  Pierce, 
who  has  provided  that  eventually  it  shall  be- 
come the  property  of  the  Maine  Historical  So- 
ciety, which  ensures  its  preservation  as  a 
reminder  that  Maine  gave  our  country  its  most 


Portland  69 

widely  known  and  best-loved  poet.  The  house 
in  which  Longfellow  was  born  is  the  three- 
story  frame  building  at  the  corner  of  Fore  and 
Hancock  Streets.  Around  the  corner,  on 
Hancock  Street,  is  the  house  in  which  Speaker 
Reed  was  born. 

For  his  services  in  the  Revolutionary  War, 
Massachusetts  gave  General  Wadsworth  a 
large  tract  of  land  in  Oxford  County,  to  im- 
prove which  he  removed  to  Hiram,  and  the 
family  of  his  son-in-law,  Stephen  Longfellow, 
thereafter  occupied  his  residence  in  Portland. 
To  the  end  of  his  life,  the  poet  made  this 
house  his  home  whenever  he  visited  the  scenes 
of  his  youth,  and  many  of  his  best  poems  were 
written  there.  The  central  part  of  the  hotel 
adjoining  was  the  mansion  of  Commodore  Ed- 
ward Preble,  built  just  before  his  death  in 
1807,  and  some  of  the  best  rooms  in  this  hotel 
have  still  the  wood-carving  and  other  ornament- 
ation given  them  by  the  hero  of  Tripoli.  A 
grandson  of  the  Commodore  was  one  of  the 
officers  of  the  Kearsarge  when  that  ship  sunk 
the  rebel  cruiser  Alabama,  in  the  most  pictur- 
esque naval  engagement  of  modern  times. 

We  have  seen  that  Portland  has  a  history 
connecting   it    with    the    French    and    Indian 


70  Portland 

Wars,  the  Revolution,  and  the  War  of  1812. 
It  was  also  the  scene  of  a  curious  episode  in 
the  late  Civil  War — the  cutting  out  of  the 
United  States  revenue  cutter  Caleb  Gushing,  in 
June,  1863.  The  cutter  had  been  preparing 
for  an  encounter  with  the  rebel  privateer  Ta- 
cojty,  which  had  been  capturing  and  burning 
many  vessels  on  the  coast  of  New  England. 
A  delay  in  fitting  her  out  had  been  occasioned 
by  the  illness  and  death  of  her  captain.  In 
the  meantime,  the  Tacony  had  captured  the 
schooner  y4r^/^<:;',  and  transferred  her  armament 
to  the  prize,  which,  after  burning  the  Tacony, 
boldly  sailed  into  Portland  harbor  in  the  guise 
of  an  innocent  fisherman,  with  Lieutenant 
Reade  in  command.  His  purpose  was  to  burn 
two  gunboats  then  being  fitted  out  in  the 
harbor,  but  he  found  them  too  well  guarded. 
He  then  turned  his  attention  to  the  cutter, 
which  was  preparing  for  a  fight  with  him  with 
no  suspicion  that  he  was  lying  almost  along- 
side. Captain  Clarke  had  died  the  day  before 
Reade's  arrival,  and  Lieutenant  Davenport,  a 
Georgian  by  birth,  was  in  command  of  the 
cutter.  At  night,  when  only  one  watchman 
was  on  deck,  a  surprise  was  quietly  effected, 
and  the  crew  put  in-  irons.     With  a  good  wind 


Portland  71 

the  cutter  might  easily  have  gotten  away  from 
the  sleeping  town  and  slipped  by  the  unsuspi- 
cious forts  ;  but  she  was  becalmed  just  after 
passing  the  forts,  and  in  the  morning  three 
steamers  were  armed  and  sent  in  pursuit.  At 
the  time  it  was  supposed  that  the  Southern 
lieutenant  had  turned  traitor,  but  the  event 
proved  his  loyalty  ;  for  he  refused  to  inform 
his  captors  where  the  ammunition  was  kept, 
and  they  had  only  a  dozen  balls  for  the  guns, 
which  were  all  spent  without  injury  to  the 
pursuers.  The  affair  was  watched  by  thous- 
ands on  the  hills  and  house-tops,  and  on  yachts 
which  in  the  dead  calm  were  rowed  to  the 
scene.  At  length  the  town  was  startled  by 
the  blowing  up  and  utter  demolition  of  the 
cutter  ;  the  Confederates  had  set  fire  to  the 
vessel  and  tried  to  escape  in  the  boats,  but 
were  at  once  captured  by  the  steamers  which 
had  been  circling  around  them.  The  Archer 
was  also  captured,  with  all  the  chronometers 
and  other  valuables  of  the  vessels  bonded  or 
destroyed  by  the  Tacony.  It  proved  an  im- 
portant check  to  the  operations  of  the  Confed- 
eracy on  the  sea,  and  it  came  just  one  week 
before  the  battle  of  Gettysburg  and  the  capture 
of  Vicksburg. 


72  Portland 

The  first  British  squadron  to  enter  the 
harbor  of  Portland  after  the  bombardment  by 
Mowatt  in  1775,  came  just  eighty-five  years 
afterward  to  a  day.  It  was  sent  to  give  dignity 
to  the  embarkation  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  in 
i860.  It  was  in  Portland,  at  what  are  now 
called  the  Victoria  wharves,  that  the  Prince, 
then  a  young  man  of  nineteen,  took  his  last 
step  on  American  soil.  His  embarkation  on  a 
bright  October  day  was  one  of  the  finest  pag- 
eants ever  witnessed  in  this  country.  Five  of 
the  most  powerful  men-of-war  in  the  British 
navy,  in  gala  trim,  with  yards  manned,  saluted 
the  royal  standard,  gorgeous  in  crimson  and 
gold,  then  for  the  first  and  only  time  displayed 
in  this  country.  The  deafening  broadsides 
when  the  Prince  reached  the  deck  of  the  Hero 
were  answered  from  the  American  forts  and 
men-of-war. 

Another  pageant,  this  time  grand  and  solemn, 
was  enacted  in  this  harbor,  in  February,  1870. 
A  British  squadron,  convoyed  by  American 
battle-ships,  brought  the  remains  of  the  philan- 
thropist, George  Peabody,  in  the  most  power- 
ful ironclad  the  world  had  then  seen.  The 
funeral  procession  of  boats  from  the  English 
and  American  ships  was  an  impressive  spectacle. 


iA^i.-^.-v^      ^       ^^^X^-X^ J(^  JJ-C^^ 


73 


74  Portland 

It  was  a  bright  winter  day,  immediately  suc- 
ceeding a  remarkable  ice-storm,  and  the  trees 
of  the  islands,  the  cape,  and  the  city  sparkled 
in  the  sun  as  if  every  bough  were  encrusted 
with  diamonds — a  wonderful  frame  for  a  memo- 
rable picture.  Nature  had  put  on  her  choicest 
finery  to  relieve  the  sombre  effect  of  the  draped 
flags,  the  muffled  oars,  the  long,  slow  lines  of 
boats,  and  the  minute  guns  from  ships  and 
forts. 

The  great  fire  of  July  4,  i8t)6,  which  burned 
fifteen  hundred  buildings  in  the  centre  of  the 
city,  also  destroyed  an  immense  number  of 
shade  trees,  mostly  large  elms,  the  abundance 
of  which  had  given  to  Portland  the  title  of 
"  Forest  City."  In  a  few  years  the  buildings 
were  replaced  by  greatly  improved  structures  ; 
but  the  trees  could  not  be  improvised  so  read- 
ily, and  the  scar  of  the  fire  is  still  noticeable 
from  the  absence  of  aged  trees  in  the  district 
swept  by  it.  Advantage  was  taken  of  the 
clearing  of  the  ground  in  the  most  thickly 
settled  part  of  the  city,  to  lay  out  Lincoln 
Park  in  the  centre  of  the  ruins.  This  is  now 
a  charming  spot,  with  its  fountain  and  flowers, 
its  lawns  and  shaded  walks. 

The  city  is  fortunate  in  the  abundance  and 


Portland  75 

purity  of  its  water  supply,  which  is  drawn  from 
Lake  Sebago,  sixteen  miles  distant.  The 
natural  outlet  of  this  lake  is  the  Presumpscot 
River,  which  has  several  valuable  water-powers 
along  its  short  course  to  its  mouth  in  Casco 
Bay,  near  Portland  harbor. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Nathaniel  Haw- 
thorne received  his  colleeiate  education,  in  the 
same  class  with  Lono-fellow,  at  Brunswick, 
which  is  in  the  same  county  with  Portland,  but 
it  is  not  so  generally  known  that  during  his 
teens  his  home  was  at  Raymond,  on  the  shore 
of  Sebago  Lake,  and  in  the  same  county. 
Part  of  each  year  he  spent  in  school  at  Salem  ; 
but  his  mother's  home  was  in  the  little  hamlet 
in  the  picturesque  wilderness  a  few  miles  from 
Portland,  and  here  he  spent  the  happiest 
months  of  his  youth,  as  he  has  testified  in 
many  letters.  His  biographers  have  gener- 
ally failed  to  take  account  of  this,  and,  indeed, 
have  asserted  that  he  was  at  Raymond  only  a 
part  of  one  year.  A  little  volume  recently 
published,  entitled  HawtJiojnies  First  Diary, 
brinofs  out  the  facts  in  this  nesflected  but  im- 
portant  episode  in  the  career  of  this  great  mas- 
ter in  our  literature.  While  fittings  for  collesfe, 
Hawthorne  became,  for  a  single  term,  the  pupil 


76  Portland 

of  the  Reverend  Caleb  Bradley,  of  Stroud- 
water,  a  suburb  of  Portland.  The  building  in 
which  he  studied  is  still  to  be  seen  at  Stroud- 
water.  The  house  of  his  mother  at  Raymond 
is  converted  into  a  church,  but  as  to  ex- 
terior remains  very  much  as  when  his  boy  life 
was  spent  in  it.  It  was  in  this  same  county  of 
Cumberland  that  Mrs.  Stowe  wrote  the  whole 
of  Uncle  Toms  CabiJi,  while  her  husband  was 
a  professor  in  Bowdoin  College.  Thus,  three 
of  the  greatest  names  in  American  literature 
are  linked  to  Portland  and  its  immediate  vicin- 
ity. 

Portland  can  count  to  her  credit  many 
jurists,  lawyers,  and  orators  of  national  re- 
pute, among  them  Theophilus  Parsons,  Simon 
Greenleaf,  Ashur  Ware,  Sargent  S.  Prentiss, 
Nathan  Clifford,  and  George  Evans.  William 
Pitt  Fessenden  lived  and  died  in  the  house  on 
State  Street  now  occupied  by  Judge  W.  L. 
Putnam.  Like  Fessenden  eminent  as  Senator 
and  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Lot  M.  Mor- 
rill spent  the  last  years  of  his  life  in  Portland. 
Still  another  great  Senator  and  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  who  was  also  Chief-Justice,  hon- 
ored this  city  by  bearing  its  name — Salmon 
Portland  Chase.      He  was  actually  named  for 


77 


78  Portland 

the  town,  his  uncle,  Salmon  Chase,  being  a 
Portland  lawyer,  and  his  parents  were  deter- 
mined that  there  should  be  no  mistake  as  to 
the  person  for  whom  he  was  named  ! 

At  an  early  period  in  his  career,  James  G. 
Blaine  edited  the  Portland  Daily  Advertiser. 
Among  writers  of  celebrity,  we  may  name  N. 
P.  Willis  and  his  sister,  "  Fanny  Fern"  ;  John 
Neal,  poet  and  novelist ;  Henry  W.  and  Sam- 
uel Longfellow;  J.  H.  I ngraham,  whose  many 
novels  had  a  great  sale  fifty  or  sixty  years  ago  ; 
Elijah  Kellogg ;  Mrs.  Ann  S,  Stephens  ;  Seba 
Smith,  author  of  the  Jack  Dowrmig  Letters^ 
and  his  more  famous  wife,  Elizabeth  Oakes 
Smith;  Thomas  Hill,  for  a  time  President  of 
Harvard  University  ;  and  the  divines,  Edward 
Payson  and  Cyrus  Bartol.  The  home  of 
Charles  Farrar  Brown,  "  Artemus  Ward,"  was 
in  an  adjoining  county,  but  like  the  Chief- 
Justice  just  mentioned,  he  came  to  Portland 
for  his  baptismal  name,  his  uncle,  Charles  Far- 
rar, being  a  Portland  physician.  Two  sculp- 
tors of  national  fame  have  gone  out  from 
Portland — Paul  Akers  and  Franklin  Simmons, 
and  some  of  the  best  works  of  both  these  artists 
adorn  public  places  in  the  city.  The  Dead  Pearl 
Diver,  by  Akers,  may  be  found  in  the  reading- 


Portland  79 

room  of  the  Public  Library  ;  and  Simmons 
has  two  bronze  statues  in  the  city,  one  a  seated 
figure  of  Longfellow,  at  the  head  of  State 
Street,  overlooking  "  Deering's  Woods,"  and 
the  other  a  noble  statue  of  America,  in  Monu- 
ment Square,  commemorating  the  sons  of 
Portland  who  died  for  the  Union  ;  no  finer 
soldiers'  monument  than  this  has  ever  been 
erected.  Of  other  artists  who  have  attained 
distinction,  we  may  name  H.  B.  Brown,  now 
residing  in  London,  whose  landscapes  and 
marine  views  have  given  him  a  recognized 
position  among  the  best  American  artists  ; 
Charles  O.  Cole,  portrait  painter  ;  and  Charles 
Codman,  J.  R.  Tilton,  and  J.  B.  Hudson, 
landscape  painters. 

Immense  sums  are  being  expended  on  the 
defences  of  the  city  by  the  United  States 
government,  as  it  is  realized  that  in  case  of 
war  with  Great  Britain  this  would  be  the  point 
of  attack,  because  Portland  is  the  natural  sea- 
port of  the  Canadas,  and  Maine  is  thrust,  in  a 
provoking  way,  between  the  Maritime  Pro- 
vinces and  the  Province  of  Quebec.  Portland 
can  indulge  in  no  dream  of  great  commercial 
importance  so  long  as  the  country  which  its 
position  especially  dominates  is   under  a  for- 


8o 


Portland 


eign  flag  ;  but  if  ever  Maine  should  be  annexed 
to  Canada,  or  the  annexation  takes  the  alter- 
native form,  a  great  future  is  assured  for  a 
town  so  favorably  located.  In  the  meantime, 
the  beautiful  city  must  be  content  to  be  the 
centre  of  distribution  for  the  pleasure  travel  of 
the  summer,  and  for  the  other  half  of  the  year, 
by  means  of  its  capacious  harbor,  it  can  con- 
tinue to  furnish  an  outlet  for  that  part  of  the 
business  of  the  Great  Lakes  which  in  summer 
is  handled  at  Montreal. 


OLD  RUTLAND,  MASSACHUSETTS 


THE    CRADLE    OF    OHIO 


By  EDWIN  D.  MEAD 

THE  Old  South  Historical  Society  in  Boston 
inaugurated  in  1896  the  custom  of  annual 
historical  pilgrimages.  It  had  learned  from 
Parkman  and  Motley  and  Irving  how  vital 
and  vivid  history  is  made  by  visits  to  the 
scenes  of  history.  Its  pilgrimages  must  be 
short  to  places  near  home  ;  but  the  good 
places  to  visit  in  New  England  are  many. 
Great  numbers  of  people,  young  and  old, 
join  in  the  pilgrimages.  Six  hundred  went  to 
the  beautiful  Whittier  places  beside  the  Mer- 
rimac,  the  second  year  ;  and  as  many  the  third 
year  to  the  King  Philip  country,  on  Narragan- 
sett  Bay. 

The  first  year's  pilgrimage  was  to  old  Rut- 
land, Massachusetts,  "the  cradle  of  Ohio."  A 
hundred  of  the  young  people  went  on  the  train 

81 


82  Old  Rutland 

from  Boston,  on  that  bright  July  day ;  and 
when  they  had  climbed  to  the  little  village  on 
the  hill,  and  swept  their  eyes  over  the  great 
expanse  of  country  round  about  Wachusett 
and  away  to  Monadnock,  and  strolled  down  to 
the  old  Rufus  Putnam  house,  by  whose  fireside 
the  settlement  of  Marietta  was  planned,  a 
hundred  more  people  had  come  from  the  sur- 
rounding villages ;  and  a  memorable  little  cele- 
bration was  that  under  the  maples  after  the 
luncheon,  with  the  dozen  energetic  speeches 
from  the  young  men  and  the  older  ones.  It 
was  a  fine  inauguration  of  the  Old  South  pil- 
grimages, and  woke  many  people  to  the  great 
possibilities  of  the  historical  pilgrimage  as  an 
educational  factor.^ 

Ten  years  before,  there  was  hardly  a  man  in 
Massachusetts  who  ever  thought  of  Rutland 
as  a  historical  town.  The  people  of  Princeton 
and  Paxton  and  Hubbardston  and  Oakham, 
looked  across  to  the  little  village  on  the  hill 
from  their  villages  on  the  hills,  and  they  did 
not  think  of  it ;  the  people  of  Worcester  drove 
up  of  a  Sunday  to  get  a  dinner  at  the  old  vil- 
lage tavern,  and  they  did  not  think  of  it ;  the 
Amherst  College  boys  and  the  Smith  College 

'  See  Editor's  Preface  p.  v. 


84  Old  Rutland 

girls  rode  past  on  the  Central  Massachusetts 
road,  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  on  their  way  to 
Boston,  and  heard  "  Rutland  !"  called,  but  they 
thought  nothing  of  history  ;  and  in  Boston  the 
last  place  to  which  people  would  have  thought 
of  arranging  a  historical  pilgrimage  was  this 
same  Rutland, 

Yet  when  the  Old  South  young  people  went 
there  on  their  first  pilgrimage,  Rutland  had 
already  become  a  name  almost  as  familiar  in 
our  homes  as  Salem  or  Sudbury  or  Deerfield. 
The  Old  South  young  people  themselves  had 
been  led  to  think  very  much  about  it.  In 
1893,  the  )'ear  of  the  World's  Fair  at  Chicago, 
the  great  capital  of  the  great  West,  a  place 
undreamed  of  a  hundred  years  before,  when 
Rutland  was  witnessing  its  one  world-histor- 
ical event,  the  Old  South  lectures  were  de- 
voted to  "  The  Opening  of  the  West."  Two 
of  the  eight  lectures  were  upon  "  The  North- 
west Territory  and  the  Ordinance  of  1787" 
and  "  Marietta  and  the  Western  Reserve "  ; 
two  of  the  leaflets  issued  in  connection  were 
Manasseh  Cutler's  Description  of  Ohio  in 
lySy  and  Garfield's  address  on  The  North- 
west Territory  and  the  Western  Reserve ;  and 
one  of  the  subjects  set  for  the  Old  South  es- 


86  Old  Rutland 

says  was  "  The  Part  Taken  by  Massachusetts 
Men  in  Connection  with  the  Ordinance  of 
1 787."  These  studies  first  kindled  the  imagina- 
tions of  hundreds  of  young  people  and  first 
roused  them  to  the  consciousness  that  westward 
expansion  had  been  the  great  fact  in  our  his- 
tory from  the  time  of  the  Revolution  to  the 
time  of  the  Civil  War ;  that  New  England 
had  had  a  controlling  part  in  this  great  move- 
ment, which,  by  successive  waves,  has  reached 
Ohio,  Illinois,  Kansas,  Colorado,  Oregon,  so 
that  there  is  more  good  New  England  blood  to- 
day west  of  the  Hudson  than  there  is  east  of  it ; 
and  that  this  movement,  which  has  transformed 
the  United  States  from  the  little  strip  along  the 
Atlantic  coast  which  fought  for  independence 
to  the  great  nation  which  stretches  now  from 
sea  to  sea,  began  at  the  old  town  of  Rutland, 
Massachusetts.  This  Rutland  on  the  hill  is 
the  cradle  of  Ohio,  the  cradle  of  the  West. 

It  was  not,  by  any  means,  these  Boston  lect- 
ures on  "The  Opening  of  the  West "  which  re- 
awakened Massachusetts  and  the  country  to  the 
forgotten  historical  significance  of  old  Rutland. 
That  awakening  was  done  by  Senator  Hoar, 
in  his  great  oration  at  the  Marietta  centennial, 
in   1888.      Senator  Hoar's  oration  did  not  in- 


Old  Rutland  2>7 

deed  awaken  Massachusetts  to  the  great  part 
taken  by  Massachusetts  men  in  connection 
with  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  or  the  part  of 
New  England  in  the  settlement  and  shaping 
of  the  West.  No  awakening  to  these  things 
was  necessary.  There  is  no  New  England 
household  which  has  not  kindred  households 
in  the  West,  ever  in  close  communication  with 
the  old  home  ;  and  the  momentous  significance 
of  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  and  the  decisive 
part  taken  by  Massachusetts  statesmen  in  se- 
curing it,  the  Massachusetts  historian  and  ora- 
tor were  never  likely  to  let  the  people  forget, 

"  At  the  foundation  of  the  constitution  of  these  new 
Northwestern  States,"  said  Daniel  Webster  in  his  great 
reply  to  Hayne,  "  lies  the  celebrated  Ordinance  of  1787. 
We  are  accustomed  to  praise  the  lawgivers  of  antiquity  ; 
we  help  to  perpetuate  the  fame  of  Solon  and  Lycurgus  ; 
but  I  doubt  whether  one  single  law  of  any  lawgiver, 
ancient  or  modern,  has  produced  effects  of  more  distinct, 
marked  and  lasting  character  than  the  Ordinance  of 
1787.  That  instrument  was  drawn  by  Nathan  Dane, 
a  citizen  of  Massachusetts  ;  and  certainly  it  has 
happened  to  few  men  to  be  the  authors  of  a  political 
measure  of  more  large  and  enduring  consequence.  It 
fixed  forever  the  character  of  the  population  in  the  vast 
regions  northwest  of  the  Ohio,  by  excluding  from  them 
involuntary  servitude.  It  impressed  on  the  soil  itself, 
while  it  was  yet  a  wilderness,  an  incapacity  to  sustain 


88  Old  Rutland 

any  other  than  free  men.  It  laid  the  interdict  against 
personal  servitude,  in  original  compact,  not  only  deeper 
than  all  local  law,  but  deeijer  also  than  all  local  constitu- 
tions. We  see  its  consequences  at  this  moment,  and 
we  shall  never  cease  to  see  them,  perhaps,  while  the 
Ohio  shall  flow." 

Mr.  Hoar  spoke  as  strongly  of  the  Ordinance, 
in  his  Marietta  oration.  "  The  Ordinance  of 
1787  belongs  with  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence and  the  Constitution  ;  it  is  one  of 
the  three  title-deeds  of  American  constitu- 
tional liberty."  But  the  chief  merit  of  his 
oration  was  not  the  new  emphasis  with  which 
he  said  what  Webster  had  said,  but  the  pict- 
uresqueness  and  the  power  with  which  he 
brought  the  men  and  the  events  of  that  great 
period  of  the  opening  of  the  West  home  to 
the  imagination.  The  oration  was  especially 
memorable  for  the  manner  in  which  it  set 
Rufus  Putnam,  the  man  of  action,  the  head 
of  the  Ohio  Company,  the  leader  of  the  Mari- 
etta colony,  in  the  centre  of  the  story,  and 
made  us  see  old  Rutland  as  the  cradle  of  the 
movement. 

Complete  religious  liberty,  the  public  sup- 
port of  schools,  and  the  prohibition  forever 
of    slavery, — these  were  what    the  Ordinance 


Old  Rutland  89 

of  1787  secured  for  the  Northwest.  "When 
older  States  or  nations,"  said  Mr.  Hoar,  "  where 
the  chains  of  human  bondage  have  been  broken, 
shall  utter  the  proud  boast,  '  With  a  great  sum 
obtained  I  this  freedom,'  each  sister  of  this  im- 
perial group — Ohio,  Michigan,  Indiana,  Illinois, 
Wisconsin — may  lift  her  queenly  head  with 
the  yet  prouder  answer,  '  But  I  was  free-born.'  " 
The  moment  of  this  antislavery  article  of  the 
Ordinance,  in  view  of  the  course  of  our  national 
history  during  the  century  that  has  followed,  it 
would  not  be  possible  to  overstate.  When  the 
great  test  of  civil  war  came,  to  settle  of  what 
sort  this  republic  should  be,  who  dare  con- 
template the  result  had  these  five  States  been 
slave  States  and  not  free  ! 

Massachusetts  makes  no  false  or  exclusive 
claims  of  credit  for  the  Ordinance  of  1787. 
She  does  not  forget  the  services  of  William 
Grayson,  nor  those  of  Richard  Henry  Lee. 
She  does  not  forget  Thomas  Jefferson.^ 

'The  Ordinance  of  1784,  the  original  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787, 
was  drawn  up  by  Jefferson  himself,  as  chairman  of  the  committee 
appointed  by  Congress  to  prepare  a  plan  for  the  government  of 
the  territory.  The  draft  of  the  committee's  report,  in  Jefferson's 
own  handwriting,  is  still  preserved  in  the  archives  of  the  State  De- 
partment at  Washington.  "It  is  a^  completely  Jefferson's  own 
work,"  says  Bancroft,  "as  the  Declaration  of  Independence."  Jef- 
ferson worked  with  the  greatest  earnestness  to  secure  the  insertion  of 


90  Old  Rutland 

The  names  of  Nathan  Dane,  Rufus  Putnam, 
Rufus  King,  Timothy  Pickering  and  Manas- 
seh  Cutler  are  names  of  the  g^reatest  moment 
in  the  history  of  the  West.  No  other  group 
of  men  did  so  much  as  these  Massachusetts 
men  to  determine  what  the  great  West  should 
be,  by  securing  the  right  organization  and  in- 
stitutions for  the  Northwest  Territory  and  by 
securing  at  the  beginning  the  right  kind  of 
settlers  for  Ohio. 

It  was  really  Manasseh  Cutler  who  did  most 
at  the  final  decisive  moment  to  secure  the  adop- 

a  clause  in  the  Ordinance  of  1 784  prohibiting  slavery  in  the  North- 
west ;  and  the  clause  was  lost  by  only  a  single  vote.  "  The  voice  of 
a  single  individual,"  said  Jefferson,  who  foresaw  more  clearly  than 
any  other  what  the  conflict  with  slavery  was  to  mean  to  the  republic, 
"would  have  prevented  this  abominable  crime.  Heaven  will  not 
always  be  silent.  The  friends  of  the  rights  of  human  nature  will 
in  the  end  prevail."  They  prevailed  for  the  Northwest  Territory 
with  the  achievement  of  Manasseh  Cutler,  Rufus  Putnam  and 
Nathan  Dane. 

Was  it  from  Jefferson  that  Putnam  and  his  men  at  Marietta  caught 
their  classical  jargon  ?  There  was  a  great  deal  of  pretentious  classi- 
cism in  America  at  that  time,  new  towns  everywhere  being  freighted 
with  high-sounding  Greek  and  Roman  names.  The  founders  of 
Marietta — so  named  in  honor  of  Marie  Antoinette — named  one  of  their 
squares  Capilolitim  ;  the  road  which  led  up  from  the  river  was  the 
Sacra  Via  ;  and  the  new  garrison,  with  blockhouses  at  the  corners, 
was  the  Campus  Martins.  Jefferson  had  proposed  dividing  the 
Northwest  into  ten  States,  instead  of  five  as  was  finally  done,  and  for 
these  States  he  proposed  the  names  of  Sylvania,  Michigania,  Asseni- 
sipia,  Illinoia,  Polypotamia,  Cherronesus,  Metropotamia,  Saratoga, 
Pelisipia  and  Washington. 


MANASSEH  CUTLER. 


91 


92 


Old  Rutland 


/^^^ 


tion  of  the  clause  in  the  great  Ordinance  which 
forever  dedicated  the  Northwest  to  freedom. 
Of  all  these  Massachusetts  men  he  was  by  far 
the  most  interesting  personality  ;  and  of  all 
revelations  of  the  inner  character  of  that  criti- 
cal period,  none  is  more  in- 
teresting or  valuable  than 
that  given  by  his  Life  and 
Letters.  It  is  to  be  remem- 
bered too  that  the  first  com- 
pany of  men  for  Marietta — 
Cutler  urged  Adelphia  as 
the  right  name  for  the  town 
— started  from  ]Manasseh 
Cutler's  own  home  in  Ips- 
wich, joining  others  at  Dan- 


NATHAN    DANE. 


vers,    December 


■87, 


almost  a  month  before  the  Rutland  farmers 
left  to  join  Putnam  at  Hartford.  For  the 
shrine  of  Manasseh  Cutler  is  not  at  Rutland, 
but  at  Hamilton,  which  was  a  part  of  Ipswich. 
The  home  of  Nathan  Dane  was  Beverly. 

"  It  happened,"  said  Edward  Everett  Hale,  at  the  Ma- 
rietta centennial,  "  that  it  was  Manasseh  Cutler  who  was 
to  be  the  one  who  should  call  upon  that  Continental  Con- 
gress to  do  the  duty  which  they  had  pushed  aside  for 
five  or  six  years.      It  happened  that  this  diplomatist  sue-    I 


Old  Rutland  93 

ceeded  in  doing  in  four  days  what  had  not  been  done  in 
four  years  before.  What  was  the  weight  which  Manas- 
seh  Cutler  threw  ii.to  the  scale?  It  was  not  wealth  ;  it 
was  not  the  armor  of  the  old  time  ;  it  was  simply  the 
fact,  known  to  all  men,  that  the  men  of  New  Eng- 
land would  not  emigrate  into  any  region  where  labor  and 
its  honest  recompense  is  dishonorable.  The  New  Eng- 
land men  will  not  go  where  it  is  not  honorable  to  do  an 
honest  day's  work,  and  for  that  honest  day's  work  to 
claim  an  honest  recompense.  They  never  have  done  it, 
and  they  never  will  do  it  ;  and  it  was  that  potent  fact, 
known  to  all  men,  that  Manasseh  Cutler  had  to  urge  in  his 
private  conversation  and  in  his  diplomatic  work.  When 
he  said,  '  I  am  going  away  from  New  York,  and  my  con- 
stituents are  not  going  to  do  this  thing,'  he  meant  ex- 
actly what  he  said.  They  were  not  going  to  any  place 
where  labor  was  dishonorable,  and  where  workmen  were 
not  recognized  as  freemen.  If  they  had  not  taken  his 
promises,  they  would  not  have  come  here  ;  they  would 
have  gone  to  the  Holland  Company's  lands  in  New  York, 
or  where  Massachusetts  was  begging  them  to  go — into 
the  valley  of  the  Penobscot  or  the  Kennebec." 

Senator  Hoar,  in  his  oration,  said  of  Manas- 
seh Cutler  : 

"  He  was  probably  the  fittest  man  on  the  continent, 
except  Franklin,  for  a  mission  of  delicate  diplomacy. 
It  was  said  just  now  that  Putnam  was  a  man  after  Wash- 
ington's pattern  and  after  Washington's  own  heart. 
Cutler  was  a  man  after  Franklin's  pattern  and  after 
Franklin's  own  heart.  He  was  the  most  learned  natural- 
ist in  America,  as  Franklin   was  the  greatest  master  in 


94  Old  Rutland 

physical  science.  He  was  a  man  of  consummate  pru- 
dence in  speech  and  conduct ;  of  courtly  manners  ;  a 
favorite  in  the  drawing-room  and  in  the  camp  ;  with  a 
wide  circle  of  friends  and  correspondents  among  the 
most  famous  men  of  his  time.  During  his  brief  service 
in  Congress,  he  made  a  speech  on  the  judicial  system, 
in  1803,  which  shows  his  profound  mastery  of  constitu- 
tional principles.  It  now  fell  to  his  lot  to  conduct  a 
negotiation  second  only  in  importance  to  that  which 
Franklin  conducted  with  France  in  1778.  Never  was 
ambassador  crowned  with  success  more  rapid  or  more 
complete." 

But  here,  in  old  Rutland,  it  is  not  with  Ma- 
nasseh  Cutler  that  we  are  concerned,  but  with 
Rufus  Putnam.  Rufus  Putnam  was  the  head 
of  the  Ohio  Company,  and  the  leader  in 
the  actual  settlement  of  the  new  Territory. 
It  was  with  Putnam  that  Manasseh  Cutler 
chiefly  conferred  concerning  the  proposed  Ohio 
colony.  He  left  Boston  for  New  York,  on  his 
important  mission,  on  the  evening  of  June  25, 
1787,  and  on  that  day  he  records  in  his  diary  : 
"  I  conversed  with  General  Putnam,  and  set- 
tled the  principles  on  which  I  am  to  contract 
with  Congress  for  lands  on  account  of  the  Ohio 
Company."  Of  Rufus  Putnam,  Senator  Hoar 
said  in  his  oration,  after  his  tributes  to  Var- 
num,  Meigs,  Parsons,  Tupper  and  the  rest : 


Qlncyu^    ^l44rL^l<f^iyi^ 


95 


96  Old  Rutland 

"  But  what  can  be  said  which  shall  be  adequate  to  the 
worth  of  him  who  was  the  originator,  inspirer,  leader, 
and  guide  of  the  Ohio  settlement  from  the  time  when  he 
first  conceived  it,  in  the  closing  days  of  the  Revolution,  un- 
til Ohio  took  her  place  in  the  Union  as  a  free  State  in  the 
summer  of  1803  ?  Every  one  of  that  honorable  body  would 
have  felt  it  as  a  personal  wrong  had  he  been  told  that  the 
foremost  honors  of  this  occasion  would  not  be  given  to 
Rufus  Putnam.  Lossing  calls  him  '  the  father  of  Ohio.' 
Burnet  says,  '  He  was  regarded  as  their  principal  chief 
and  leader.'  He  was  chosen  the  superintendent  at  the 
meeting  of  the  Ohio  Company  in  Boston,  November  21, 
1787,  'to  be  obeyed  and  respected  accordingly,'  The 
agents  of  the  company,  when  they  voted  in  1789  'that 
the  7th  of  April  be  forever  observed  as  a  public  festival,' 
speak  of  it  as  '  the  day  when  General  Putnam  com- 
menced the  settlement  in  this  country.'  Harris  dedi- 
cates the  documents  collected  in  his  appendix  to  Rufus 
Putnam,  '  the  founder  and  father  of  the  State.'  He  was 
a  man  after  Washington's  own  pattern  and  after  Wash- 
ington's own  heart  ;  of  the  blood  and  near  kindred  of 
Israel  Putnam,  the  man  who  '  dared  to  lead  where  any 
man  dared  to  follow.'  " 

Mr.  Hoar  recounts  the  great  services  of  Put- 
nam during  the  Revolution,  beginning  with 
his  brilliant  success  in  the  fortification  of  Dor- 
chester Heights  : 

"  We  take  no  leaf  from  the  pure  chaplet  of  Washing- 
ton's fame  when  we  say  that  the  success  of  the  first  great 


Old  Rutland  97 

military  operation  of  the  Revolution  was  due  to  Rufus 
Putnam." 

But  it  was  not  Senator  Hoar's  task  to  nar- 
rate the  military  services  of  General  Putnam/ 

"  We  have  to  do,"  he  said,  "  only  with  the  entrench- 
ments constructed  under  the  command  of  this  great  en- 
gineer for  the  constitutional  fortress  of  American  liberty. 
Putnam  removed  his  family  to  Rutland,  Worcester 
County,  Mass.,  early  in  1780.  His  house  is  yet  stand- 
ing, about  ten  miles  from  the  birthplace  of  the  grand- 
father of  President  Garfield.  He  himself  returned  to 
Rutland  when  the  war  was  over.  He  had  the  noble 
public  spirit  of  his  day,  to  which  no  duty  seemed  trifling 
or  obscure.  For  five  years  he  tilled  his  farm  and  ac- 
cepted and  performed  the  public  offices  to  which  his 
neighbors  called  him.  He  was  representative  to  the 
General  Court,  selectman,  constable,  tax  collector  and 
committee  to  lay  out  school  lots  for  the  town  ;  State 
surveyor,  commissioner  to  treat  with  the  Penobscot  In- 
dians and  volunteer  in  putting  down  Shays's  Rebellion. 
He  was  one  of  the  founders  and  first  trustees  of  Leices- 

'  Rufus  Putnam  was  born  in  Sutton,  Massachusetts,  April  9,  1738, 
just  fifty  years  before  he  founded  Marietta,  where  he  died  May  i, 
1824.  He  was  a  cousin  of  General  Putnam.  Early  in  life  he  was  a 
millwright  and  a  farmer  ;  but  he  studied  mathematics,  surveying  and 
engineering — after  distinguished  service  in  the  old  French  war — and 
became  our  leading  engineer  during  the  Revolution,  and  an  able  offi- 
cer in  many  campaigns.  He  first  planned  the  Ohio  settlement,  and 
at  the  outset  made  it  a  distinct  condition  that  there  should  be  no 
slavery  in  the  territory.  Five  years  after  the  founding  of  Marietta, 
Putnam  was  made  Surveyor-General  of  the  United  States  ;  and  his 
services  in  Ohio  until  the  time  of  his  death  were  of  high  importance. 


98  Old  Rutland 

ter  Academy,  and,  with  his  family  of  eight  children, 
gave  from  his  modest  means  a  hundred  pounds  toward 
its  endowment.  But  he  had  larger  plans  in  mind.  The 
town  constable  of  Rutland  was  planning  an  empire." 

Putnam's  chief  counsellor  in  his  design  at  the 
first  was  Washington,  whose  part  altogether  in 
the  opening  of  the  West  was  so  noteworthy. 
Mr  Hoar  tells  of  the  correspondence  between 
Putnam  and  Washington,  and  follows  the  in- 
teresting history  to  the  organization  of  the 
Ohio  Company,  at  the  Bunch  of  Grapes  Tav- 
ern in  Boston,  in  1 786,  and  the  departure  of 
the  Massachusetts  emigrants  at  the  end  of  the 
next  year. 

"  Putnam  went  out  from  his  simple  house  in  Rutland 
to  dwell  no  more  in  his  native  Massachusetts.  It  is  a 
plain,  wooden  dwelling,  perhaps  a  little  better  than  the 
average  of  the  farmers'  houses  of  New  England  of  that 
day  ;  yet  about  which  of  Euro])e's  palaces  do  holier 
memories  cling  !  Honor  and  fame,  and  freedom  and 
empire,  and  the  faith  of  America  went  witli  liim  as  he 
crossed  the  threshold." 

To  Rutland,  as  one  who  loved  the  old  town 
and  its  history  has  well  said,  "  belongs  the 
honor  of  having  carried  into  action  the  Ordi- 
nance of  1787.  Standing  on  Rutland  hill,  and 
looking  around  the  immense  basin  of  which  it 


Old  Rutland  99 

forms  the  centre,  it  is  with  conscious  pride  that 
one  looks  upon  the  old  landmarks  and  calls  up 
to  the  imagination  the  strong  and  brave  and 
true  men  whose  traditions  have  permeated  the 
soil  and  left  their  marks  in  the  civilization 
which  has  been  the  type  for  the  development 
of  the  whole  of  the  great  Northwest."  For 
this  old  town  on  the  hilltop  was  veritably 
"  the  cradle  of  Ohio."  Here  was  first  effect- 
ually heard  that  potent  invitation  and  com- 
mand, so  significant  in  the  history  of  this 
country  in  these  hundred  years,  "  Go  West ! " 
This  town  incarnates  and  represents  as  no  other 
the  spirit  of  the  mighty  movement  which  dur- 
ing the  century  has  extended  New  England  all 
through  the  great  West. 

As  early  as  1783,  about  the  time  of  the 
breaking  up  of  the  army  at  Newburgh  on  the 
Hudson,  General  Putnam  and  nearly  three 
hundred  army  officers  had  proposed  to  form  a 
new  State  beyond  the  Ohio,  and  Washington 
warmly  endorsed  their  memorial  to  Congress 
asking  for  a  grant  of  land  ;  but  the  plan  mis- 
carried. As  soon  as  the  Ordinance  was  passed, 
the  Ohio  Company,  of  which  Putnam  was  the 
president,  bought  from  the  government  five  or 
six  million  acres,  and  the  first  great  movement 


loo  Old  Rutland 

of  emigration  west  of  the  Ohio  at  once  began. 
Within  a  year  following  the  organization  of 
the  territory,  twenty  thousand  people  became 
settlers  upon  the  banks  of  the  Ohio.  But  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  of  the  thousands  and  the  mil- 
lions, the  pioneers  to  whom  belongs  the  praise, 
were  the  forty  or  fifty  farmers  who  from  old 
Rutland  pushed  on  with  Putnam  through  the 
snows  of  Connecticut  and  Pennsylvania,  com- 
ing to  Pittsburgh  just  as  the  spring  of  1788 
came,  and  dropping  down  the  river  to  Marietta 
in  the  little  boat  which  they  had  named,  by  a 
beautiful  fatality,  the  Mayfiower.  "  Forever 
honored  be  Marietta  as  another  Plymouth  !  " 

The  men  who  first  settled  the  Northwest 
Territory, — as  President  Hayes,  following  Mr. 
Hoar  at  Marietta,  well  called  it,  "the  most 
fortunate  colonization  that  ever  occurred  on 
earth," — and  who  set  the  seal  of  their  charac- 
ter and  institutions  upon  it,  were  of  the  best 
blood  of  New  England. 

"  Look  for  a  moment,"  said  Mr.  Hoar,  "  at  the  forty- 
eight  men  who  came  here  a  hundred  years  ago  to  found 
the  first  American  civil  government  whose  jurisdiction 
did  not  touch  tide-water.  See  what  manner  of  men  they 
were  ;  in  what  school  they  had  been  trained  ;  what  tra- 
ditions they  had  inherited.     I  think  that  you  must  agree 


I02  Old  Rutland 

that  of  all  the  men  who  ever  lived  on  earth  fit  to  perform 
*  that  ancient,  primitive  and  heroical  work,'  the  founding 
of  a  State,  they  were  the  fittest." 

Here  we  remember  too  the  words  of  Washing- 
ton. 

"  No  colony  in  America,"  said  Washington,  the  warm 
friend  of  Putnam,  who  was  deeply  concerned  that  the 
development  of  the  West  should  begin  in  the  right  way, 
in  the  hands  of  the  right  men,  "  was  ever  settled  undei 
such  favorable  auspices  as  that  which  has  just  com- 
menced at  the  Muskingum.  Information,  property  and 
strength  will  be  its  characteristics.  I  know  many  of  the 
settlers  personally,  and  there  never  were  men  better  cal- 
culated to  promote  the  welfare  of  such  a  community." 

We  honor  old  Rutland  not  only  because  she 
sent  men  to  open  the  West,  but  because  she 
sent  her  best,  because  she  pitched  the  tone  for 
the  great  West  high. 

But  Rutland  is  not  only  "  the  cradle  of 
Ohio,"  pre-eminent  as  that  distinction  is  in  her 
history.  She  also — like  the  other  towns  on  the 
hills  round  about  her,  and  like  every  good  old 
New  England  town — has  her  long  line  of  sim- 
ple local  annals,  well  worthy  the  attention  of 
the  summer  visitor  from  Boston  or  Chicasfo. 
Happy  are  you  if  you  hear  them  all  from  the 
lips  of  one  or  another  of  the  local  antiquar- 
ians, as  you  ride  with  him  through  the  fields 


Old  Rutland 


103 


to  Muschopauge  Pond,  or  along  the  Princeton 
road  to  Wachusett,  or  over  Paxton  way  to  see 
the  lot  which  Senator  Hoar  has  bouQ-ht  on  the 
top  of  Asnebumskit  Hill, — perhaps  finding 
the  Senator  himself  on  the  hill,  as  we  did, 
where  he  could  see  Worcester  in  one  direc- 
tion, and  in  the  other,  Rutland. 

I  remember  well  the  crisp  September  night 
when  I  first  saw  Rutland,  with  the  new  moon 
in  the  clear  sky,  and  the  even- 
ing star.  I  remember  that 
the  man  who  drove  me  up 
from  the  little  station  to  the 
big  hotel  on  the  hill,  while  I 
filled  my  lungs  with  Rutland 
air,  proved  to  be  the  hotel 
proprietor  himself,  and, 
which  was  much  better, 
proved — and  proved  it  much 
more  the  next  day — to  be  the 
very  prince  of  local  antiquar- 
ians. He  had  himself  writ- 
ten a  history  of  Rutland  for  a  history  of 
Worcester  County,  and  there  was  nothing  that 
he  did  not  know.  If  there  was  anything,  then 
the  ofood  village  minister — he  has  been  to  Mari- 
etta  since,  and  is  president  of  the  Rutland  His- 


THE       CENTRAL   TREE.' 


I04 


Old  Rutland 


torical  Society — had  read  it  in  some  book  ;  or 
the  town  clerk  knew  it ;  or  Mr.  Miles  remem- 
bered it — who  was  to  Rutland  born,  and  whose 
memory  was  good.  So  in  the  dozen  pleasant 
visits  which  I  have  made  to  Rutland  since,  I 
have  not  only  taken  mine  ease  with  the  benevo- 
lent boniface,  but  have  taken  many  history  les- 
sons on  the  broad  piazzas  and  the  hills. 


THE    OLD    RUTLAND    INN. 


The  boniface  will  tell  you,  sitting  in  the  cor- 
ner lookinof  toward  Wachusett,  how,  in  1686, 
Joseph  Trask,  alias  Pugastion,  of  Pennicook  ; 
Job,  alias  Pompamamay,  of  Natick  ;  Simon 
Pitican,  alias  Wananapan,  of  Wamassick ; 
Sassawannow,  of  Natick,  and  another — Indi- 
ans who  claimed  to  be  lords  of  the  soil — crave  a 


Old  Rutland  105 

deed  to  Henry  Willard  and  Joseph  Rowland- 
son  and  Benjamin  Willard  and  others,  for  £22, 
of  the  then  currency,  of  a  certain  tract  of  land 
twelve  miles  square,  the  name  in  general  being 
Naquag,  the  south  corner  butting  upon  Mus- 
chopauge  Pond,  and  running  north  to  Quani- 
tick  and  to  Wauchatopick,  and  so  running 
upon  great  Wachusett,  etc.  Upon  the  peti- 
tion, he  will  tell  you,  of  the  sons  and  grand- 
sons of  Major  Simon  Willard,  of  Lancaster, 
deceased — that  famous  Major  Willard  who 
went  to  relieve  Brookfield  when  beset  by  the 
Indians — and  others;  the  General  Court  in 
I  713  confirmed  these  lands  to  these  petitioners, 
"  provided  that  within  seven  years  there  be 
sixty  families  settled  thereon,  and  sufficient 
lands  reserved  for  the  use  of  a  gospel  ministry 
and  schools,  except  what  part  thereof  the  Hon, 
Samuel  Sewall,  Esq.,  hath  already  purchased, 
— the  town  to  be  called  Rutland,  and  to  lye  to 
the  county  of  Middlesex."  The  grant  was 
about  one  eighth  of  the  present  Worcester 
County,  comprising  almost  all  the  towns  round 
about.  When  the  new  Worcester  County  was 
incorporated,  Rutland  failed  of  becoming  the 
shire  town,  instead  of  Worcester,  by  only  one 
vote — and  that  vote,  they  say  in  Rutland,  was 


io6  Old  Rutland 

^bought  by  a  base  bribe.  The  antiquarian 
taverner  will  point  his  spy-glass  toward  Barre 
for  you,  and  tell  you  it  was  named  after  our 
good  friend  in  the  House  of  Commons  in  the 
Stamp  Act  days  ;  toward  Petersham  hill,  back 
of  it,  where  John  Fiske  spends  his  summers, 
and  tell  you  about  Shays'  Rebellion  ;  toward 
Hubbardston,  and  tell  you  it  was  named  for 
.an  old  speaker  of  the  Massachusetts  House  of 
Representatives ;  toward  Princeton,  and  tell 
you  it  perpetuates  the  memory  of  Thomas 
Prince,  the  famous  old  pastor  of  the  Old  South 
Church  in  Boston,  founder  of  the  Prince  Li- 
brary ;  toward  Paxton,  and  tell  you  about 
Charles  Paxton,  who  was  something  or  other  ; 
toward  Oakham,  and  tell  you  something  else. 
He  will  tell  you  that  H olden  is  so  called  after 
that  same  family  whose  name  is  also  honored 
in  H olden  Chapel  at  Harvard  College  ;  and 
he  will  probably  point  to  Shrewsbury,  on  the 
hill  away  beyond  H olden,  and  talk  about  Gen- 
eral Artemas  Ward,  whose  old  home  and  grave 
are  there. 

He  will  tell  about  the  first  settlers  of  Rut- 
land, respectable  folk  from  Boston  and  Concord 
and  other  places,  and  how  many  immigrants 
from  Ireland  there  were,  vrith  their  church-mem- 


io8  Old  Rutland 

bership  papers  in  their  pockets.  He  will  tell 
you  of  Judge  Sewall's  farm  of  a  thousand  acres 
in  the  north  part  of  the  town,  and  of  his  gift  of 
the  sacramental  vessels  to  the  church  ;  of  the 
five  hundred  acres  a-ranted  to  the  Ancient  and 
Honorable  Artillery  Company  ;  of  how  the 
road  throuo^h  the  villaore  was  laid  out  ten  rods 
wide,  and  so  remains  unto  this  day  ;  of  the 
call  to  the  "  able,  learned,  orthodox  minister," 
Joseph  Willard,  in  1721,  and  how  he  was  "cut 
off  by  the  Indians  " — shot  in  the  field  north  of 
the  meeting-house — just  before  the  installation 
day,  so  that  Thomas  Frink,  "  an  able  and 
learned,  orthodox  and  pious  person,"  was  called 
instead.  Presently  there  was  "  a  coolness  in 
affection  in  some  of  the  brethren "  towards 
Mr.  Frink,  because  two  fifths  of  the  church- 
members  were  Presbyterians,  over  against  the 
three  fifths  Congregationalists,  and  "contrary 
to  his  advice  and  admonition  communed  with 
the  Presbyterians  in  other  towns."  The  upshot 
was  a  split,  and  a  Presbyterian  church  in  the 
west  part  of  the  town.  These  Rutland  Presby- 
terians seem  to  have  come  from  Ireland — they 
were  of  the  same  sort  as  those  who  founded 
Londonderry,  New  Hampshire  just  before ; 
?.nd   some  of  them  were  so  tenacious  of  their 


Old  Rutland  109 

own  ordinances  that  they  carried  their  infants 
in  their  arms  on  horseback  as  far  as  Pelham  to 
have  them  baptized  in  good  Presbyterian  form. 

Rutland  had  her  minute-men,  and  fifty  of 
them  were  at  Bunker  Hill.  She  had  some 
hot  town-meetings  between  the  Stamp  Act 
time  and  Lexington,  and  passed  ringing  reso- 
lutions and  some  stiff  instructions  to  Colonel 
Murray,  her  representative  to  the  General 
Court,  whom  more  and  more  she  distrusted, 
and  who,  when  the  final  pinch  came,  declared 
himself  a  Tory  out-and-out,  and  fled  to  Nova 
Scotia,  leaving  Rutland  "by  a  back  road,"  to 
avoid  a  committee  of  the  whole,  which  was  on 
its  way  to  visit  him. 

To  tell  the  truth,  this  Tory  Colonel,  John 
Murray,  must  have  been  the  most  interesting 
figure  ever  associated  with  old  Rutland,  save 
General  Rufus  Putnam  himself  ;  and,  curiously 
enough,  the  Putnam  place  had  belonged  first 
to  Murray, — the  house  being  built  by  him  for 
one  of  his  married  daughters,  all  of  Murray's 
lands  and  goods  being  confiscated,  and  this 
house  falling  into  Putnam's  hands  in  1780  or 
1782,  probably  at  a  very  low  figure. 

He  was  not  John  Murray  when  he  came  to 
Rutland,    but    John    McMorrah.        He    came 


no  Old  Rutland 

from  Ireland  with  John  and  Elizabeth  Mc- 
Clanathan,  Martha  Shaw  and  others,  his 
mother  dying  on  the  passage.  He  was  not 
only  penniless  when  he  set  his  foot  on  the 
American  shore,  but  in  debt  for  his  passage. 
"  For  a  short  time,"  says  the  chronicle,  "  he 
tried  manual  labor ;  but  he  was  too  lazy  to 
work,  and  to  beg  ashamed."  He  found  a  friend 
in  Andrew  Hendery,  and  began  peddling  ;  then 
he  kept  a  small  store,  and  later  bought  cattle 
for  the  army.  Everything  seemed  to  favor  him, 
and  he  became  the  richest  man  that  ever  lived 
in  Rutland.  "  He  did  not  forget  Elizabeth  Mc- 
Clanathan,  whom  he  sailed  to  America  with,  but 
made  her  his  wife."  She  lies,  along  with  Lu- 
cretia  Chandler,  his  second  wife,  and  Deborah 
Brindley,  the  third,  in  the  old  Rutland  grave- 
yard. "He  placed  horizontally  over  their  graves 
large  handsome  stones  underpinned  with  brick, 
whereon  were  engraved  appropriate  inscrip- 
tions." He  had  a  large  family,  seven  sons  and 
five  daughters  ;  and  the  oldest  son,  Alexander, 
remained  loyal  to  America  and  to  Rutland 
when  his  father  fled — entering  the  army  and 
being  wounded  in  the  service.  Murray  be- 
came a  large  landholder  and  had  many  tenants  ; 
he  was  the  "  Squire"  of  the  region.      He  grew 


Old  Rutland  m 

arbitrary  and  haughty  as  he  grew  wealthy,  but 
was  popular,  until  the  stormy  politics  came. 
"  On  Representative  day,"  we  read,  "  all  his 
friends  that  could  ride,  walk,  creep  or  hobble 
were  at  the  polls  ;  and  it  was  not  his  fault  if 
they  returned  dry."  He  held  every  office  the 
people  could  give  him,  and  represented  them 
twenty  years  in  the  General  Court.  He  was  a 
large,  fleshy  man,  and,  "  when  dressed  in  his 
regimentals,  with  his  gold-bound  hat,  etc.,  he 
made  a  superb  appearance."  He  lived  in  style, 
with  black  servants  and  white.  "  His  high  com- 
pany from  Boston,  Worcester,  etc.,  his  office 
and  parade,  added  to  the  popularity  and 
splendor  of  the  town.  He  promoted  schools, 
and  for  several  years  gave  twenty  dollars 
yearly  towards  supporting  a  Latin  grammar 
school."  He  also  gave  a  clock  to  the  church, 
which  was  placed  in  front  of  the  gallery,  and 
proved  himself  a  thoroughly  modern  man  by 
inscribing  on  the  clock  the  words,  "  A  Gift  of 
John  Murray,  Esq." 

All  these  things  your  loyal  Rutland  host  will 
tell  you,  or  read  to  you  out  of  the  old  books, — 
where  you  can  read  them,  and  many  other 
things.  And  he  will  take  you  to  drive,  down 
past  the   Putnam  place,  to  the  field  where  a 


112 


Old  Rutland 


large  detachment  of  Burgoyne's  army  was 
quartered  after  the  surrender  at  Saratoga. 
The  prisoners'  barracks  stood  for  half  a  cent- 
ury, converted  to  new  uses  ;  and  the  well  dug 
by  the  soldiers  is  still  shown — as,  until  a  few 
years  ago,  were  the  mounds  which  marked  the 


.flBSfe 

BRITISH    BARRACKS. 

graves  of  those  who  died.  Three  of  the  offi- 
cers fell  in  love  with  Rutland  girls,  and  took 
them  back  to  England  as  their  wives.  Yet 
none  of  their  stories  is  so  romantic  as  the  story 
of  that  vagrant  Betsy,  whose  girlhood  was 
passed  in  a  Rutland  shanty,  and  who,  after  she 
married  in  New  York  the  wealthy  P  renchman, 
Stephen  Jumel,  and  was  left  a  widow,  then 
married  Aaron  Burr. 


Old  Rutland  113 

St.  Edmundsbury,  in  old  Suffolk,  where  Rob- 
ert Browne  first  preached  independency,  has 
an  air  so  bracing  and  salubrious  that  it  has 
been  called  the  Montpellier  of  England.  Old 
Rutland  might  well  be  called  the  Montpellier 
of  Massachusetts.  Indeed,  when  a  few  years 
ago  the  State  of  Massachusetts  decided  to  es- 
tablish a  special  hospital  for  consumptives,  the 
authorities  asked  the  opinions  of  hundreds  of 
physicians  and  scientific  men  in  all  parts  of  the 
State  as  to  where  was  the  best  place  for  it,  the 
most  healthful  and  favorable  point ;  and  a  vast 
preponderance  of  opinion  was  in  behalf  of 
Rutland.  On  the  southern  slope,  therefore, 
of  Rutland's  highest  hill  the  fine  hospital  now 
stands  ;  and  until  people  outgrow  the  foolish 
notion  that  a  State  must  have  all  its  State  in- 
stitutions within  its  own  borders, — until  Massa- 
chusetts knows  that  North  Carolina  is  abetter 
place  for  consumptives  than  any  town  of  her 
own, — there  could  not  be  a  wiser  choice.  The 
town  is  so  near  to  Worcester,  and  even  to 
Boston,  that  its  fine  air,  broad  outlook  and  big 
hotel  draw  to  it  hundreds  of  summer  visitors  ; 
and  latterly  it  has  grown  enterprising, — for 
which  one  is  a  little  sorry, — and  has  water- 
works and  coaching  parades. 


114 


Old  Rutland 


The  central  town  in  Massachusetts,  Rutland 
is  also  the  highest  villaofe  in  the  State  east  of 
the  Connecticut.  From  the  belfry  of  the  village 
church,  from  the  dooryards  of  the  village  peo- 
ple, the  eye  sweeps  an  almost  boundless  hori- 
zon, from  the  Blue  Hills  to  Berkshire  and  from 
Monadnock  to  Connecticut,  and  the  breezes 
on  the  summer  day  whisper  of  the  White  Hills 
and  the  Atlantic.  It  is  not  hard  for  the  imagin- 
ation to  extend  the  view  far  beyond  New 
England,  to  the  town  on  the  Muskingum  which 
the  prophetic  eye  of  Putnam  saw  from  here, 
and  to  the  great  States  beyond,  which  rose 
obedient  to  the  effort  which  began  with  him  ; 

1^ -J.    it   is  not  hard 

L^i^'.  fi^ittHM     ^^   catch   mes- 

sages borne  on 
winds  from  the 
Rocky  Mount- 
ains and  the 
Pacific. 

Just  at  the 
foot  of  the  hill, 
— to  the  west, 


THE    RUFUS    PUTNAM    HOUSE 

as   is   fittino- 


stands  the  old  Rufus  Putnam 
house,  the  church  clock  telling  the  hour  above. 
Wachusett    looming    beyond    the    valley,    the 


Old  Rutland  115 

maples  rustling  before  the  door,  to  the  west 
the  sough  of  the  pines.  Its  oaken  timbers  are 
still  as  sound  as  when  Murray  put  them  in 
place  before  the  Revolution,  each  clapboard 
still  intact,  the  doors  the  same,  the  rooms  but 
little  altered.  Could  Putnam  return  to  earth 
again  and  to  Rutland,  he  would  surely  feel 
himself  at  home  as  he  passed  through  the  gate. 
In  1893,  when  the  enthusiasm  re-inforced 
by  our  Old  South  lectures  on  "The  Opening 
of  the  West "  was  strong,  I  wrote  these  words 
about  the  Rufus  Putnam  house  : 

"  This  historic  house  should  belong  to  the  people.  It 
should  be  insured  against  every  mischance.  It  should 
be  carefully  restored  and  preserved,  and  stand  through 
the  years,  a  memorial  of  Rufus  Putnam  and  the  farmers 
who  went  out  with  him  to  found  Ohio,  a  monument  to 
New  England  influence  and  effort  in  the  opening  and 
building  of  the  great  West.  This  room  should  be  a 
Rufus  Putnam  room,  in  which  there  should  be  gathered 
every  book  and  picture  and  document  illustrating  Put- 
nam's career  ;  this  should  be  the  Ordinance  room,  sa- 
cred to  memorials  of  Manasseh  Cutler  and  all  who 
worked  with  him  to  secure  the  great  charter  of  liberty  ; 
this  the  Marietta  room,  illustrating  the  Marietta  of  the 
first  days  and  the  last,  binding  mother  and  daughter  to- 
gether, and  becoming  the  pleasant  ground  for  the  inter- 
change of  many  edifying  courtesies.  There  should  be, 
too,  a  Rutland  room,  with  its  hundred  objects  illustrat- 


ii6  Old  Rutland 

ing  the  long  history  of  the  town, —  ahnost  every  important 
chapter  of  which  has  been  witnessed  by  this  venerable 
building, — with  memorials  also  of  the  old  English  Rut- 
land and  of  the  many  American  Rutlands  which  look 
back  reverently  to  the  historic  Massachusetts  town  ;  and 
a  Great  West  library,  on  whose  shelves  should  stand  the 
books  telling  the  story  of  the  great  oak  which  has  grown 
from  the  little  acorn  planted  by  Rufus  Putnam  a  hun- 
dred years  ago.  We  can  think  of  few  memorials  which 
could  be  established  in  New  England  more  interesting 
than  this  would  be.  We  can  think  of  few  which  could 
be  established  so  easily.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  look  for- 
ward to  the  day  when  this  shall  be  accomplished.  It  is 
not  hard  to  hear  already  the  voice  of  Senator  Hoar,  at 
the  dedication  of  this  Rufus  Putnam  memorial,  deliver- 
ing the  oration  in  the  old  Rutland  church.  Men  from 
the  West  should  be  there  with  men  from  the  East,  men 
from  Marietta,  from  the  Western  Reserve,  from  Chicago, 
from  Puget  Sound.  A  score  of  members  of  the  Anti- 
quarian Society  at  Worcester  should  be  there.  That 
score  could  easily  make  this  vision  a  reality.  We  com- 
mend the  thought  to  these  men  of  Worcester.  We 
commend  it  to  the  people  of  Rutland,  who,  however  the 
memorial  is  secured,  must  be  its  custodians." 

Just  a  year  from  the  time  these  words  were 
written,  the  pleasing  plan  and  prophecy — more 
fortunate  than  most  such  prophecies — began  to 
be  fulfilled.  It  was  a  memorable  meeting  in 
old  Rutland  on  that  brilliant  October  day  in 
1894.      Senator    Hoar    and    seventy-five  good 


Old  Rutland  1 1 7 

men  and  women  came  from  Worcester  ;  and 
Edward  Everett  Hale  led  a  zealous  company 
from  Boston  ;  and  General  Walker  drove  over 
with  his  friends  from  Brookfield,  his  boyhood 
home  near  by, — the  home,  too,  of  Rufus  Putnam 
before  he  came  to  Rutland  ;  and  when  every- 
body had  roamed  over  the  old  Putnam  place, 
and  crowded  the  big  hotel  dining-room  for 
dinner,  and  then  adjourned  to  the  village 
church,  so  many  people  from  the  town  and  the 
country  round  about  had  joined  that  the 
church  never  saw  many  larger  gatherings. 
The  address  which  Senator  Hoar  gave  was 
full  of  echoes  of  his  great  Marietta  oration  ; 
and  when  the  other  speeches  had  been  made, 
it  was  very  easy  in  the  enthusiasm  to  secure 
pledges  for  a  third  of  the  four  thousand  dol- 
lars necessary  to  buy  the  old  house  and  the 
hundred  and  fifty  acres  around  it.  The  rest 
has  since  then  been  almost  entirely  raised  ;  the 
house  has  been  put  into  good  condition,  and 
is  visited  each  year  by  hundreds  of  pilgrims 
from  the  East  and  the  West  ;  and  a  note- 
worthy collection  of  historical  memorials  has  al- 
ready been  made, — all  under  the  control  of  the 
Rutland  Historical  Society,  which  grew  out  of 
that  historic  day,  and  which  is  doing  a  noble 


ii8  Old  Rutland 

work  for  the  intellectual  and  social  life  of  the 
town,  strengthening  in  the  minds  of  the  people 
the  proud  consciousness  of  their  rich  inherit- 
ance, and  prompting  them  to  meet  the  new 
occasion  and  new  duty  of  to-day  as  worthily  as 
Rufus  Putnam  and  the  Rutland  farmers  met 
the  duty  and  opportunity  of  1787.  In  the 
autumn  of  1898,  there  was  another  noteworthy 
celebration  at  Rutland.  This  time  it  was  the 
Sons  of  the  Revolution  who  came  ;  and  they 
placed  upon  the  Putnam  house  a  bronze  tablet 
with  the  following  inscription,  written  by  Sen- 
ator Hoar,  who  was  himself  present  and  the 
chief  speaker,  as  on  the  earlier  occasion  : 

"Here,  from  1781  to  1788,  dwelt  General  Rufus  Put- 
nam, Soldier  of  the  Old  French  War,  Engineer  of  the 
works  which  compelled  the  British  Army  to  evacuate 
Boston  and  of  the  fortifications  of  West  Point,  Founder 
and  Father  of  Ohio.  In  this  house  he  planned  and  ma- 
tured the  scheme  of  the  Ohio  Company,  and  from  it 
issued  the  call  for  the  Convention  which  led  to  its  organ- 
ization. Over  this  threshold  he  went  to  lead  the  Com- 
pany which  settled  Marietta,  April  7,  1788.  To  him, 
under  God,  it  is  owing  that  the  great  Northwest  Territory 
was  dedicated  forever  to  Freedom,  Education,  and  Re- 
ligion, and  that  the  United  States  of  America  is  not 
now  a  great  slaveholding  Empire." 

Many  such  celebrations  will  there  be  at  the 


Old  Rutland 


119 


home  of  Rufus  Putnam,  and  at  the  little  vil- 
lage on  the  hill.  Ever  more  highly  will  New 
England  estimate  the  place  of  old  Rutland 
in  her  history  ;  ever  more  sacred  and  signifi- 
cant will  it  become  as  a  point  of  contact  for 
the  East  and  West ;  and  in  the  far-off  years 
the  sons  and  daughters  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Il- 
linois, Michigan  and  Wisconsin  will  make  pil- 
o-rimaees  to  it,  as  the  children  of  New  Eno^land 
pilgrimage  to  Scrooby. 


9 


SALEM 

THE   PURITAN    TOWN 

By  GEORGE  DIMMICK  LATIMER 

ALEM  Is  what  historical  students  would  call 
*^  2ipalimpsest,  an  ancient  manuscript  that  has 
been  scraped  and  then  rewritten  with  another 
and  later  text.  By  careful  study  of  the  almost 
illegible  characters  and  sometimes  by  chemical 
treatment,  great  treasures  of  the  ancient  learn- 
ing, such  as  Orations  of  Cicero,  the  Institutes 
of  Gains  and  versions  of  the  New  Testament, 
have  been  discovered  under  monkish  rules 
and  medieval  chronicles.  Such  a  charm  of 
research  and  discovery  awaits  the  historical 
student  In  this  modern,  progressive  city.  The 
stranger  within  our  gates  Is  at  first  Impressed 
by  the  many  good  business  blocks,  the  elegant 
residences  amid  beautiful  lawns  on  the  broad, 
well-shaded  streets,  the  handsome  public  build- 
ings, many  of  them  once  stately  mansions  of 


122 


Salem 


• 

the  old  sea-captains,  and  a  very  convenient 
electric-car  service  that  makes  the  city  a  fam- 
ous shopping-place  for  the  eastern  half  of  the 
county.  But  here  and  there  the  visitor  comes 
upon  some  memorial  tablet  or  commemorative 
stone,  some  ancient  cemetery  or  venerable 
building — faded  characters  of  an  earlier  text — 

that  brinofs  to  mind 
the  great  age  of 
Puritanism  or  the 
only  less  interest- 
ing era  of  our 
town's  commercial 
supremacy  ;  while 
if  he  enters  the 
Essex  Institute  to 
;  see    its    large   and 

valuable  historical 
collection,  it  is  modern 
Salem  that  is  obliterated  and 
the  stern  poverty  and  aus- 
tere piety  of  the  Fathers 
that  stand  out  distinctly. 
With  what  interest  he  will 
look  at  the  sun-dial  and 
sword  of  Governor  Endi- 
cott,    at     the     baptismal    shirt    of    Governor 


GOVERNOR  ENDICOTT'S 
SUN-DIAL  AND  SWORD. 


124  Salem 

Bradford,  and  at  the  stout  walking-stick  of 
George  Jacobs,  one  of  the  victims  of  the 
Witchcraft  Delusion  !  The  ancient  pottery, 
the  old  pewter  and  iron  vessels,  the  antique 
fowling-pieces  and  firebacks,  the  valuable  auto- 
graphs of  charters  and  military  commissions 
and  title-deeds — all  these  survivals  of  the 
seventeenth  century  help  to  reconstruct  that 
Puritan  settlement  under  the  direction  of 
Endicott  and  Bradstreet,  of  Higginson  and 
Roger  Williams.  Or  if  the  visitor  has  entered 
the  Peabody  Academy  of  Science,  rich  in 
natural  history  and  ethnological  collections,  it 
is  the  proud  record  of  commercial  supremacy 
at  the  beginning  of  this  century  which  the  old 
palimpsest  reveals.  As  he  studies  the  models 
of  famous  privateers  and  trading-vessels,  the 
oil  portraits  of  the  old  sea-captains  and  mer- 
chant princes,  the  implements  and  idols,  the 
vestments  and  pottery,   they  brought 

"  From  Greenland's  icy  mountains, 
From  India's  coral  strand," 

he  can  easily  imagine  himself  back  in  the  days 
when  Derby  Street  was  the  fashionable  thor- 
ougrhfare  and  its  fine  mansions  overlooked  the 
beautiful  harbor,  the  long  black  wharves  with 


Salem  125 

their  capacious  warehouses  and,  moored  along- 
side, the  restless  barks  and  brigantines  for  the 
moment  quiet  under  the  eyes  of  their  hardy 
and  successful  owners. 

Thanks  to  the  historic  spirit  and  the  pains- 
taking, loving  labors  of  her  citizens,  Old  Salem 
is  easily  deciphered  under 
the  handsome,  modern,  pro- 
gressive city  of  thirty-four 
thousand  inhabitants  with 
factories,  electric  plants  and 
Queen  Anne  cottages. 
Thanks  to  the  genius  of  her 
distinguished  son  Nathaniel 
Hawthorne,  the  interpreter  governor  simon  brad- 
of    the  Puritan  spirit,   an  in-  street. 

visible  multitude  of  figures  in  steeple-hats  and 
black  cloaks  and  trunk-breeches,  with  here  and 
there  some  gallant  whose  curling  locks  and  gay 
attire  are  strangely  out  of  place  in  the  sober 
company,  may  always  be  suspected  on  the 
sleepy  back-streets  with  their  small,  wooden, 
gambrel-roofed  houses,  or  musing  under  the 
ancient  willows  in  the  venerable  cemetery  since 
1637  known  as  "The  Burying  Point,"  where 
were  laid  the  bodies  of  Governor  Bradstreet  and 
many  another  Puritan.     There  are  few  Ameri- 


126 


Salem 


can  cities  in  which  it  is  so  easy  to  feel  the 
influence  of  a  great  past  and  to  call  up  the 
images  of  Puritan  minister  and  magistrate, 
for  in  Salem  we  are  surrounded  by  their 
memorials,  the  houses  they  built,  the  church  in 
which  they  first  worshipped,  their  charter  and 
title-deeds,  their  muskets 
and  firebacks,  even  the 
garments  they  wore. 

Salem  really  dates  from 
1626,  when  Roger  Co- 
nant  and  a  little  band  of 
English  farmers  and  fish- 
e  r  m  e  n,  in  discouraged 
mood,  left  the  bleak  shore 
of  Cape  Ann  and  came  to 
this  region,  then  called  by 
the  Indians  Naumkeag, 
a  large  tract  of  land,  heavily  wooded  to  the 
westward,  and  at  the  east  running  in  irregu- 
lar, picturesque  manner  out  into  Massachusetts 
Bay.  Hither  came  in  September,  1628,  Cap- 
tain John  Endicott  and  a  hundred  adventur- 
ers, brinmncr  with  them  a  charter  from  the 
English  company  that  claimed  ownership  of 
this  territory,  and  many  articles  of  English 
manufacture  to  exchancre  with  the  Indians  for 


GOVERNOR  JOHN   ENDICOTT. 


Salem  127 

fish  and  furs.  Endicott  had  been  appointed 
Governor  by  the  company,  and  immediately 
began  to  display  the  strength  of  character  and 
readiness  in  resource  that  justified  the  wisdom 
of  the  directors  and  made  him  during  his  life- 
time one  of  the  commanding  figures  of  the 
Bay  Colony. 

It  was  a  busy  time  for  these  serious  immi- 
grants, who  came  in  the  fall  and  had  to  make 
hurried  preparation  for  the  winter.  Behind 
them  extended  the  vast,  unknown  forest,  ten- 
anted by  savages  and  wild  beasts,  while  in 
front  stretched  the  three  thousand  miles  of 
salt  water  they  had  just  traversed.  They  built 
houses,  they  felled  trees,  they  made  treaties 
with  the  Indians,  they  hunted,  fished,  and 
ploughed  the  land  they  cleared.  Apparently 
little  had  been  done  by  Conant  and  his  dis- 
couraged friends,  but  they  had  left  a  "  faire 
house  "  at  Cape  Ann  which  was  now  brought 
to  Naumkeag  for  the  Governor's  use. 

Some  of  the  colonists  were  actuated  by  love 
of  religious  freedom  and  some  by  hopes  of 
gain.  A  strong  hand  was  needed  to  enforce 
order  and  to  give  the  settlement  that  religious 
character  which  its  founders  desired.  It  was 
found  in  Endicott,  then  in  the  prime  of  life. 


128 


Salem 


sternest  of  Puritans,  quick  of  temper,  imperi- 
ous of  will,  and  fortunately  of  intense  religious 
convictions. 

Hawthorne  is  the  poet  of  the  Puritan  age. 
After  reading  the  events  of  that  memorable 
century  in  Felt's  Annals  of  Salem  and  Up- 
ham's   Salern    Witchcraft,  the   student  should 

turn  to  the  pages  of  the 
romancer  for  vivid  pic- 
tures of  the  Puritan  in 
his  greatness  of  spirit 
and  severity  of  rule.  In 
^1  The  Maypole  of  Merry 
"^  Mount  Hawthorne  has 
shown  us,  as  only  this 
Wizard  of  New  England  could,  the  dramatic 
moment  when  Endicott,  accompanied  by  his 
mail-clad  soldiers,  presented  himself  at  Mount 
Wollaston,  near  Quincy,  and  abruptly  ended 
the  festivities  of  the  young  and  thoughtless 
members  of  the  colony  whom  the  lawless  Mor- 
ton had  orathered  around  him.  Nor  would 
the  portrait  of  Endicott  be  complete  without 
the  touch  that  shows  him,  in  fierce  anti-prela- 
tial  mood,  cutting  out  the  blood-red  cross  from 
the  English  flag,  for  which  daring  deed  the 
General  Court,  fearing  trouble  with  the  home 


THE  PICKERING  FIREBACK. 


Salem  129 

government,  condemned  him,  then  ex-Gover- 
nor, to  the  loss  of  his  office  as  assistant,  or 
councillor,  for  one  year. 

The  beginning  of  the  severe,  repressive  rule 
of  the  Puritan  over  domestic  and  social  life, 
so  repellent  to  modern  thought,  is  found  in 
the  instructions  sent  to  Endicott  by  the  di- 
rectors of  the  English  company. 

"  To  the  end  the  Sabbath  may  be  celebrated  in  a  religious 
manner,  we  appoint  that  all  that  inhabit  the  Plantation, 
both  for  the  general  and  the  particular  employments,  may 
surcease  their  labour  every  Saturday  throughout  the  year 
at  3  o'c  in  the  afternoon,  and  that  they  spend  the  rest 
of  that  day  in  catechizing  and  preparing  for  the  Sabbath 
as  the  ministers  shall  direct." 

He  was  also  to  see  that  at  least  some  members 
of  each  family  were  well  grounded  in  religion, 

*'  whereby  morning  and  evening  family  duties  may  be 
well  performed,  and  a  watchful  eye  held  over  all  in 
each  family  .  .  .  that  so  disorders  may  be  pre- 
vented and  ill  weeds  nipt  before  they  take  too  great  a 
head." 

For  this  purpose  the  company  furnished  him 
with  blank  books  to  record  the  daily  employ- 
ments of  each  family  and  expected  these  re- 
cords to  be  sent  over  to  England  twice  a  year. 


130  Salem 

In  our  natural  dislike  and  distrust  of  such  a 
Puritan  Inquisition  we  should  remember  that 
the  exigencies  of  the  time  and  place  go  far 
towards  justifying  such  stern  precautions.  The 
English  company  wanted  a  successful  settle- 
ment, one  to  which  they  could  themselves  re- 
treat if  political  and  ecclesiastical  oppression 
in  the  old  country  should  prove  too  great  for 
their  endurance  ;  and  they  well  knew  that  pro- 
sperity depended  upon  order,  sobriety,  thrift, 
and  piety.  The  splendid  history  and  the 
moral  leadership  of  New  England  in  these 
three  centuries  have  justified  this  painstaking, 
minute,  even  exasperating  watch  over  the  wel- 
fare of  a  colony  far  from  the  restraints  of  an 
old  civilization,  in  peril  from  hostile  savages 
and  lawless  adventurers  on  an  inhospitable 
soil. 

As  a  contrast  to  this  gloomy  picture  of  social 
life,  their  intentions  towards  the  Indians  shine 
in  a  bright  light.  The  company  wrote  to 
Endicott  in  reference  to  the  land  questions 
certain  to  arise  : 

"  If  any  of  the  savages  pretend  right  of  inheritance  to 
all  or  any  part  of  the  lands  granted  in  our  Patent,  we 
pray  you  endeavour  to  purchase  their  title,  that  we  may 
avoid  the  least  scruple  of  intrusion." 


Salem 


i^i 


Great  pains  were  taken  to  establish  just  and 
humane  relations  with  the  red  man.  One  of 
the  objects  of  the  company  was  the  conversion 
of  the  Indians  to  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  Among" 
the  wise  measures  of  the  day  it  was  forbidden 
to  sell  them  muskets,  ammunition  or  liquor, 
and  they  were  permitted  to  enter  the  settle- 
ment at  certain  stated 
times  only,  for  purposes 
of  trade  or  treaty.  As  a 
nation,  our  treatment  of 
the  Indian  has  been  so 
barbarous  that  this  saga- 
cious and  Christian  policy 
of  the  first  Puritans  calls 
for  the  highest  praise  and 
reveals  another  valuable 
trait  in  the  heroic  charac- 
ter of  the  Fathers. 

That  first  winter  at 
Naumkeag  was  a  severe 
test  of  the  fortitude  of  the  Puritans.  They 
suffered  from  lack  of  sufficient  food  and  ade- 
quate shelter,  and  many  died  from  disease. 
In  their  great  need  Governor  Endicott  wrote 
to  Governor  Bradford  and  asked  that  a  phy- 
sician be  sent  to  them  from  the  Plymouth  set- 


OLD  CRADLE. 


132  Salem 

dement.  Soon  Dr.  Fuller  came  and  not  only 
ministered  to  the  sick,  but  in  many  conversa- 
tions with  Endicott  and  his  companions 
doubtless  prepared  the  way  for  their  adoption 
of  the  Congregational  or  Independent  form 
of  church.  The  Pilgrims  had  withdrawn  from 
the  Church  of  England,  averse  to  its  ritual 
and  discipline,  and  were  known  as  Separatists. 
Even  before  their  arrival  at  Plymouth  they 
instituted  the  Congregational  form  of  worship 
and  discipline  which  they  had  already  practised 
in  England  and  Holland.  But  the  Puritans 
at  Naumkeae  had  intended  to  reform  and  not 
to  give  up  the  Anglican  liturgy  to  which  they 
were  attached  by  tradition  and  sentiment. 
The  Episcopal  or  the  Congregational  order 
of  service  was  a  momentous  issue  in  these 
formative  months  and  it  is  significant  that 
on  Dr.  Fuller's  return  to  Plymouth  Endicott 
wrote  to  Bradford  :  "  I  am  by  him  satisfied, 
touching  your  judgement  of  the  outward  form 
of  God's  worship  ;  it  is,  as  far  as  I  can  yet 
gather,  no  other  than  is  warranted  by  the  evi- 
dence of  truth." 

In  the  following  spring  four  hundred  im- 
migrants and  four  Non-conformist  clergymen, 
among  them   Francis    Higginson  and  Samuel 


Salem  133 

Skelton,  arrived  and  steps  were  then  taken 
for  the  formal  organization  of  the  church.  In 
the  contract  the  English  company  made  with 
the  Rev.  Francis  Higro-inson  there  is  another 
evidence  of  its  generous  and  enlightened 
policy.  He  was  to  receive  /^t^o  for  his  outfit, 
;^io  for  books  and  ^30  per  annum  for  three 
years.  In  addition,  the  company  was  to  find 
him  a  house,  food,  and  wood  for  that  period, 
to  transport  himself  and  family,  and  to  bring 
them  back  to  England  at  the  expiration  of  the 
time  if  it  should  then  be  his  wish.  He  was 
also  to  have  one  hundred  acres  of  land,  and  if 
he  died  his  wife  and  children  were  to  be  main- 
tained while  on  the  plantation. 

At  this  time  the  Indian  name  Naumkeag 
was  given  up  and  the  settlement  took  its  pre- 
sent name  of  Salem,  an  abbreviation  of  Jerusa- 
lem and  meaning,  as  every  one  knows,  Peace. 
The  important  event  was  the  organization  of 
the  church.  Services  had  been  held  during 
the  winter,  perhaps  in  that  "  faire  house  "  of  the 
Governor's,  and  doubtless  the  whole  or  parts 
of  the  Anglican  liturgy  had  been  used.  A 
radical  change  now  occurred.  After  suitable 
preparation  by  prayer  and  fasting  the  ministers 
were   examined   to   test    their   fitness   for   the 


134  Salem 

office,  and  then  by  a  written  ballot,  the  first 
use  of  the  ballot  in  this  country,  Samuel  Skel- 
ton  was  elected  pastor  and  Francis  Higginson 
teacher  or  assistant  pastor.  Then  Mr.  Higgin- 
son and  "  three  or  four  of  the  gravest  members 
of  the  church  "  laid  their  hands  upon  the  head 
of  Mr.  Skelton,  and  with  appropriate  prayer 
installed  him  as  minister  of  this  first  Puritan 
(as  distinguished  from  the  Pilgrim)  church  in 
America.  Afterwards,  by  a  similar  imposi- 
tion of  hands  and  prayer  by  Mr.  Skelton,  Mr. 
Higginson  was  installed  as  teacher.  The  Ply- 
mouth church  had  been  invited  to  send  dele- 
gates, and  as  one  of  them  Governor  Bradford 
came,  delayed  by  a  storm,  but  in  time  to  offer 
the  right  hand  of  fellowship.  Thirty  names 
were  signed  to  the  following  covenant  and  the 
First  Church  of  Salem  was  organized  :  "  We 
covenant  with  the  Lord  and  with  one  another, 
and  do  bind  ourselves  in  the  presence  of  God, 
to  walk  together  in  all  His  ways,  according  as 
He  is  pleased  to  reveal  Himself  unto  us  in  His 
blessed  word  of  truth."  The  deed  was  done. 
The  Congregational  creed  and  polity  were 
adopted  and  the  church  that  for  more  than 
two  centuries  dominated  New  England  thought 
and  life  was  established  in  Salem. 


Salem  135 

For  several  years  the  youthful  church  met  in 
a  private  house.  But  in  1634  the  colonists 
were  ready  to  build  the  "meeting-house"  and 
the  small,  bare  edifice,  built  of  logs  and  boast- 
ing a  thatched  roof  and  stone  chimney,  was 
soon  erected.  "  A  poor  thing,  but  mine  own," 
the  Puritan  might  have  said  as  he  recalled 
the  venerable  and  beautiful  cathedrals  of  the 
mother-country.  But  the  Puritan  doubtless 
never  quoted  Shakespeare.  It  is  more  proba- 
ble that  he  thought  of  the  tabernacle  with 
which  the  chosen  people  journeyed  in  the  wil- 
derness, long  before  Solomon's  temple  crowned 
Mount  Moriah,  and  rejoiced  that  the  House  of 
the  Lord  was  at  last  set  up  in  their  midst. 
The  sinewy  oak  timbers  of  this  ancient  build- 
ing, within  modern  roof  and  walls,  still  remain, 
one  of  the  most  impressive  monuments  of  this 
ancient  town.  Its  size,  20  x  i  7  feet,  makes  one 
somewhat  skeptical  of  the  familiar  statement 
that  everybody  went  to  church  in  the  good  old 
times.  But  I  doubt  not  that  both  floor  and 
gallery  were  well  filled  Sundays  and  at  the 
great  Thursday  lecture,  although  on  both 
days  the  preacher  had  the  privilege,  to  mod- 
ern divines  denied,  of  reversing  his  hour- 
glass after  the  sand  had  run  out  and,  secure  of 


136  Salem 

his  congregation,  deliberately  proceeding  to 
his  "  Finally,  Brethren."  On  one  side  sat  the 
men,  on  the  other  the  women  and  small  child- 
ren, each  in  his  proper  place,  determined  by 
wealth  or  public  office.  Even  in  that  religious 
age  four  men,  it  appears,  were  appointed  to 
prevent  the  boys  from  running  downstairs  be- 
fore the  Benediction  was  pronounced,  while  the 
constable,  armed  with  a  long  pole  tipped  with 
a  fox's  tail,  was  always  at  hand  to  rouse  the 
drowsy  or  inattentive.  There  was  at  each 
service  a  collection.  Only  church-members 
could  vote  at  the  town-meetings,  held  at  first 
in  the  new  meeting-house,  but  every  house- 
holder was  taxed  for  the  support  of  the  church. 

In  1630,  John  Winthrop,  the  newly  ap- 
pointed Governor  of  the  Colony,  accompanied 
by  several  hundred  persons,  came  to  Salem. 
Disappointed  in  the  place,  they  soon  moved 
to  Charlestown,  and  there  established  the  seat 
of  government.  From  that  date  Salem  took 
the  second  place  in  the  Colony,  but  always 
maintained,  then  as  now,  an  independent,  pub- 
lic-spirited life. 

Hither  came,  in  1634,  Roger  Williams,  after 
the  vicissitudes  in  those  days  experienced  by 
an   original   and   outspoken   man.     After   the 


138  Salem 

death  of  Mr.  Higginson,  he  became  the  min- 
ister of  the  First  Church.  The  orio^inal  tim- 
bers  of  his  dwelHng-house,  dating  from  1635, 
are  still  to  be  seen,  more  ancient  than  the 
ancient  roof  and  walls  that  cover  them,  and 
reveal  faded  characters  of  the  Puritan  pal- 
impsest. A  double  interest  attaches  to  this 
venerable  building,  since  as  the  residence 
of  Judge  Corwin  tradition  has  made  it  the 
scene  of  some  of  the  preliminary  examinations 
in  the  witch  trials.  But  the  wanderings  of 
Roger  Williams  were  not  yet  ended.  His  at- 
tacks upon  the  authority  of  the  magistrates  as 
well  as  his  controversies  with  the  ministers 
brouofht  him  under  the  condemnation  of  the 
General  Court.  Though  the  Salem  church  re- 
sisted, it  was  obliged  to  part  with  its  minister 
who  quitted  Massachusetts  under  sentence  of 
banishment,  to  become  the  Founder  of  Rhode 
Island.  A  remarkable  man  was  Roger  Wil- 
liams, of  great  gifts  and  singular  purity  of 
conscience,  but  his  inflexible  spirit,  opposed 
to  the  theocratic  rule  of  ministers  and  magis- 
trates, was  wisely  set  at  constructive  work  in 
another  colony. 

This  was  the  eventful  age  of  Puritanism  in 
the  mother-country  and   in  the  colonies.      All 


Salem  139 

that  we  read  of  the  austere  piety  and  social 
restraints  of  the  Puritan  theocracy  is  found  in 
this  period  from  1629  to  1700.  Much  might 
be  said  of  the  growth  of  Salem  in  population 
and  wealth  and  influence  in  this  century,  but 
there  is  no  time  to  tell  the  story  in  a  single 
chapter.  We  come  at  once  to  the  close  of  the 
century  when  the  old  town  earned  an  unenvia- 
ble notoriety  by  the  tragic  affair  known  as  the 
Witchcraft  Delusion. 

We  must  think  of  Salem  in  1692  as  a  town 
of  I  700  inhabitants,  in  a  delightful  situation  on 
Massachusetts  Bay,  almost  encircled  by  sea- 
water,  while  at  the  west  stretched  away  the 
vast  forest,  broken  here  and  there  by  large  plant- 
ations or  farms  which  it  was  the  policy  of  the 
Governor  to  erant  to  those  who  would  under- 
take  the  pioneer  work  of  cultivation.  These 
farms,  widely  scattered,  were  known  as  Salem 
Village,  and  at  a  place  a  few  miles  from  Sa- 
lem, now  known  as  Danvers  Centre,  there  was 
a  little  group  of  farmhouses  surrounding  a 
church,  of  which  the  Rev.  Samuel  Parris  was 
minister.  In  this  family  were  two  slaves,  John 
and  Tituba,  whom  he  had  brought  from  the 
West  Indies,  and  two  children,  his  daughter 
Elizabeth,  nine  years  old,  and  his  niece  Abi- 


HO  Salem 

gail   Williams,   eleven  years  of   age.      In  the 

winter  of  1691-92  these  children  startled  the 
neighborhood  by  their  unaccountable  perform- 
ances, creeping  under  tables,  assuming  strange 
and  painful  attitudes,  and  uttering  inarticulate 
cries.  At  times  they  fell  into  convulsions  and 
uttered  piercing  shrieks.  Dr.  Griggs,  the 
local  physician,  declared  the  children  be- 
witched, and  this  explanation  was  soon  af- 
ter confirmed  by  a  council  of  the  ministers 
held  at  Mr.  Parris's  house. 

Absurd  as  such  an  explanation  seems  to  us, 
it  must  be  remembered  that,  with  rare  ex- 
ceptions, every  one  at  that  time  believed  in 
witchcraft.  It  found  an  apparent  confirmation 
in  the  Bible,  from  the  text,  "  Thou  shalt  not 
suffer  a  witch  to  live"  (Exodus  xxii.,  18), 
and  the  great  legal  authorities  of  England, 
Coke,  Selden,  and  Matthew  Hale,  had  given 
decisions  implying  the  fact  of  witchcraft  and 
indicating  the  various  degrees  of  guilt.  It  was 
easier  to  accept  this  explanation  since  execu- 
tions for  this  crime  had  already  taken  place  at 
Charlestown,  Dorchester,  Cambridge,  Hart- 
ford and  Springfield.  Governor  Winthrop, 
Governor  Bradstreet  and  Governor  Endicott 
had  each  sentenced  a  witch  to  death.      Gover- 


Salem  141 

nor  Endicott  had  pronounced  judgment  upon  a 
person  so  important  as  Mistress  Ann  Hibbins, 
widow  of  a  rich  merchant  and  the  sister  of 
Governor  Belhngham,  famihar  to  us  all  in  the 
pages  of  The  Scarlet  Letter.  A  few  years  be- 
fore, Cotton  Mather,  the  distinguished  young 
divine  of  Boston,  had  published  a  work  affirm- 
ing his  belief  in  witchcraft  and  detailing  his 
study  of  some  bewitched  children  in  Charles- 
town,  one  of  whom  he  had  taken  into  his  own 
family  the  better  to  observe. 

It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  these 
young  girls,  instead  of  being  punished  for  mis- 
chievous conduct  or  treated  for  nervous  de- 
rangement, were  pitied  as  the  victims  of  some 
malevolent  persons  and  urged  to  name  their 
tormentors.  Encouraged  by  the  verdict  of 
physician  and  ministers,  countenanced  by  Mr. 
Parris  and  the  church-members,  these  "afflicted 
children,"  as  they  and  some  other  girls  and 
women  similarly  affected  in  the  village  were 
now  called,  began  their  accusations.  The  first 
persons  mentioned  were  Tituba,  the  Indian 
slave,  Goody  Osborn,  a  bedridden  woman 
whose  mind  was  affected  by  many  troubles, 
physical  and  mental,  and  Sarah  Good,  a  friend- 
less, forlorn  creature,  looked  upon  as  a  vagrant. 


142 


Salem 


In  March,  1692,  the  first  examinations  were 
held  in  the  meetinor-house  in  Salem  Village, 
John  Hawthorne,  ancestor  of  the  novelist,  and 
Jonathan  Corwin  acting-  as  magistrates.  The 
accused  did  not  receive  fair  treatment — their 
guilt  was  assumed  from  the  first,  no  coun- 
sel was  allowed,  the  judges  even  bullied 
them  to  force  a  confession.  The  evidence 
against  them,  as  in  all  the 
following  cases,  was  "  spec- 
tral evidence,"  as  it  was 
called.  It  consisted  of  the 
assertions  of  the  children 
that  they  were  tortured 
whenever  the  accused  looked 
at  them,  choked,  pinched, 
beaten,  or  pricked  with  the 
pins  which  they  produced 
from  their  mouths  or  clothing,  and  in  one  in- 
stance, at  least,  stabbed  by  a  knife  the  broken 
blade  of  which  was  shown  by  the  "afflicted 
child."  In  one  or  two  cases  the  children  were 
convicted  of  deception,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
broken  knife-blade.  A  young  man  present 
testified  that  he  had  broken  the  knife  himself 
and  had  thrown  away  the  useless  blade  in  the 
presence  of  the  accusing  girl.      But  with  merely 


WITCH   PINS. 


Salem  143 

a  reprimand  from  the  judge  and  the  injunc- 
tion not  to  tell  lies,  the  girls  were  permitted  to 
make  their  monstrous  charges  against  the  men 
and  women  who  stood  amazed,  indignant, 
helpless,  before  accusations  they  could  only 
deny,  not  refute. 

In  this  first  trial  Tituba  confessed  that  under 
threats  from  Satan,  who  had  most  often  ap- 
peared to  her  as  a  man  in  black  accompanied 
by  a  yellow  bird,  she  had  tortured  the  girls, 
and  named  as  her  accomplices  the  two  women, 
Good  and  Osborn,  After  the  trial,  which  took 
place  a  little  later  in  Salem,  Tituba  was  sent 
to  the  Boston  jail,  where  she  remained  until 
the  delusion  was  over.  She  was  then  sold  to 
pay  the  expenses  of  her  imprisonment,  and  is 
lost  to  histor)^  The  other  women  also  were 
sent  to  jail,  where  they  remained  for  many 
months,  until  the  delusion  was  over. 

The  community  felt  a  sense  of  relief  after 
the  confession  of  Tituba  and  the  imprisonment 
of  the  other  women.  It  was  hoped  Satan's 
power  was  checked.  But  on  the  contrary  the 
power  of  the  devil  was  to  be  shown  in  a 
far  more  impressive  manner.  The  "  afflicted 
children  "  continued  to  suffer  and  soon  began 
to  accuse  men  and  women  of  unimpeachable 


144  Salem 

lives.  Within  a  few  months  several  hundred 
people  in  Salem,  Andover  and  Boston  were 
arrested  and  thrown  into  the  jails  at  Salem, 
Ipswich,  Cambridge  and  Boston.  As  Gover- 
nor Hutchinson,  an  historian  of  the  time, 
stated,  the  only  way  to  prevent  an  accusation 
was  to  become  an  accuser.  The  state  of  affairs 
resembled  the  Reign  of  Terror  in  France  a 
century  later,  when  men  of  property  and  po- 
sition lived  in  fear  of  being  regarded  as  "a 
suspect." 

For  the  thrilling  story  of  these  trials  and 
their  wretched  victims  the  student  should  turn 
to  Mr.  Upham's  authoritative  and  popular 
volumes  upon  Salem  Witchcraft.  The  reader 
can  never  forget  the  tragic  fate  of  the  vener- 
able Rebecca  Nurse,  George  Burroughs,  a  for- 
mer clergyman  of  the  church  in  Salem  Village, 
and  the  other  victims.  Here  we  can  review 
only  the  trial  of  the  Corey  family,  a  fitting 
climax  to  this  scene  of  horror. 

Two  weeks  after  the  trial  of  Tituba  and  her 
companions,  a  warrant  was  issued  for  the  arrest 
of  Martha  Corey,  aged  sixty,  the  third  wife  of 
Giles  Corey,  a  well-known  citizen.  She  was  a 
woman  of  unusual  strength  of  character  and 
from  the  first  denounced  the  witchcraft  excite- 


Salem  i45 

ment,  trying  to  persuade  her  husband  who 
believed  all  the  monstrous  stories,  not  to  at- 
tend the  hearings  or  in  any  way  countenance 
the  proceedings.  Perhaps  it  was  her  well- 
known  opinion  that  directed  suspicion  to  her. 
At  her  trial  the  usual  performance  was  enacted. 
The  girls  fell  on  the  floor,  uttered  piercing 
shrieks,  cried  out  upon  their  victim.  "  There 
is  a  man  whispering  in  her  ear ! "  one  of  them 
suddenly  called  out.  "  What  does  he  say  to 
you?"  the  judge  demanded  of  Martha  Corey, 
accepting  without  any  demur  this  "  spectral 
evidence."  "  We  must  not  believe  all  these  dis- 
tracted children  say,"  was  her  sensible  answer. 
But  good  sense  did  not  preside  at  the  witch 
trials.  She  was  convicted  and  not  long  after- 
ward executed.  Her  husband's  evidence  went 
against  her  and  is  worth  noting  as  fairly  re- 
presentative of  much  of  the  testimony  that  con- 
victed the  nineteen  victims  of  this  delusion  : 

"One  evening  I  was  sitting  by  the  fire  when  my  wife 
asked  me  to  go  to  bed.  I  told  her  I  would  go  to  prayer, 
and  when  I  went  to  prayer  I  could  not  utter  my  desires 
with  any  sense,  not  open  my  mouth  to  speak.  After  a 
little  space  I  did  according  to  my  measure  attend  the 
duty.  Some  time  last  week  I  fetched  an  ox  well  out  of 
the  woods  about  noon,  and  he  laying  down  in  the  yard, 
I  went  to  raise  him  to  yoke  him,  but  he  could  not  rise, 


146  Salem 

but  dragged  his  hinder  parts  as  if  he  had  been  hip  shot, 
but  after  did  rise.  I  had  a  cat  some  time  last  week 
strongly  taken  on  the  sudden,  and  did  make  me  think 
she  would  have  died  presently.  My  wife  bid  me  knock 
her  in  the  head,  but  I  did  not  and  since  she  is  well.  My 
wife  hath  been  wont  to  sit  up  after  I  went  to  bed,  and  1 
have  perceived  her  to  kneel  down  as  if  she  were  at 
prayer,  but  heard  nothing." 

It  is  hard  to  believe  that  such  statements, 
most  probable  events  interpreted  in  the  least 
probable  manner,  should  have  had  any  judicial 
value  whatever.  Yet  it  is  precisely  such  a 
mixture  of  superstition  and  stupid  speculation 
about  unusual  or  even  daily  incidents  that  was 
reo-ularly  brought  forward  and  made  to  tell 
against  the  accused. 

Soon  after  his  wife's  arrest  Giles  Corey  him- 
self was  arrested,  taken  from  his  mill  and 
brought  before  the  judges  of  the  special  court, 
appointed  by  Governor  Phipps  but  held  in 
Salem,  to  hear  the  witch  trials.  Again  the 
accusing  girls  went  through  their  performance, 
again  the  judges  assumed  the  guilt  of  the 
accused,  and  tried  to  browbeat  a  confession 
from  him.  But  in  the  interval  between  his 
arrest  and  trial  this  old  man  of  eighty  had  had 
abundant  leisure  for  reflection.      He  was  sure 


Salem  147 

not  only  of  his  own  innocence  but  of  his  wife's 
as  well,  and  it  must  have  been  a  bitter  thought 
that  his  own  testimony  had  helped  convict  her. 
Partly  as  an  atonement  for  this  offense  and 
partly  to  save  his  property  for  his  children, 
which  he  could  not  have  done  if  he  had  been 
convicted  of  witchcraft,  after  pleading  "  not 
guilty  "  he  remained  mute,  refusing  to  add  the 
necessary  technical  words  that  he  would  be 
tried  "  by  God  and  his  country."  Deaf  alike 
to  the  entreaties  of  his  friends  and  the  threats 
of  the  Court,  he  was  condemned  to  the  torture 
of  peine  forte  et  dure,  the  one  instance  when 
this  old  English  penalty  for  contumacy  was 
enforced  in  New  England.  According  to  the 
law  the  aged  man  was  laid  on  his  back,  a  board 
was  placed  on  his  body  with  as  great  a  weight 
upon  it  as  he  could  endure,  while  his  sole  diet 
consisted  of  a  few  morsels  of  bread  one  day 
and  a  draught  of  water  the  alternate  day,  until 
death  put  an  end  to  his  sufferings. 

The  execution  of  eight  persons  on  Gallows 
Hill  three  days  later,  September  22,  were  the 
last  to  occur  in  the  Colony.  Accusations  were 
still  made,  trials  were  held,  more  people  were 
thrown  into  jail.  But  there  were  no  more 
executions,  and  the  next  spring  there  was,  ac- 


148  Salem 

cording  to  Hutchinson,  such  a  jail  delivery  as 
was  never  seen  before. 

"  The  smith  filed  off  the  chains  he  forged, 
The  jail  bolts  backward  fell  ; 
And  youth  and  hoary  age  came  forth 
Like  souls  escaped  from  hell." 

The  tragedy  was  at  an  end.  It  lasted  about 
six  months,  from  the  first  accusations  in  March 
until  the  last  executions  in  September.  Nine- 
teen persons  had  been  hanged,  and  one  man 
pressed  to  death.  There  is  no  foiindation  for 
the  statement  that  the  witches  were  burned. 
This  is  a  mistake  constantly  made,  and  one 
that  should  always  be  corrected.  But  hundreds 
of  innocent  men  and  women  were  thrown  into 
jail  or  obliged  to  flee  to  some  place  of  con- 
cealment, their  homes  were  broken  up,  their 
property  injured,  while  they  suffered  great 
anxiety  for  themselves  and  friends. 

It  was  an  epidemic  of  mad,  superstitious 
fear,  bitterly  to  be  regretted,  and  a  stain  upon 
the  high  civilization  of  the  Bay  Colony.  It  is 
associated  with  Salem,  but  several  circum- 
stances are  to  be  taken  into  consideration. 
First  of  all,  note  the  fact  that  while  the  victims 
were  residents  of  Essex  County,  of  Salem  and 


Salem  149 

vicinity,  and  the  trials  were  held  in  Salem,  yet 
the  special  court  that  tried  them  was  appointed 
by  the  Governor  ;  the  Lieutenant-Governor  of 
the  Colony,  Stoughton,  presided  ;  and  Boston 
ministers,  notably  Cotton  Mather,  the  influ- 
ential minister  of  the  North  Church,  were 
interested  observers.  Boston  as  well  as  Salem 
is  responsible  for  the  tragedy.  In  the  second 
place,  remember  that  this  dramatic  event  with 
all  its  frightful  consequences  led  to  a  more 
rational  understanding  of  the  phenomena  of 
witchcraft.  By  a  natural  revulsion  of  feeling 
future  charges  of  witchcraft  were  regarded  with 
suspicion,  "  spectral  evidence"  was  disallowed, 
and  there  were  no  more  executions  for  this 
crime  in  New  Engfland. 

Various  explanations  of  the  conduct  of  the 
"afflicted  children"  have  been  ofl^ered.  One 
writer  has  suggested  that  they  began  their 
proceedings  in  jest  but,  partly  from  fear  of 
punishment  if  they  confessed,  partly  from  an 
exaggerated  sense  of  their  own  importance, 
they  continued  to  make  charges  against  men 
and  women  whom  they  heard  their  elders 
mention  as  probable  witches.  In  that  little 
settlement  there  were  property  disputes,  a 
church  quarrel,  jealousies,  rivalries,  and  much 


150  Salem 

misunderstanding,  which  had  their  influence. 
Another  writer  lays  stress  upon  "  hypnotic  in- 
fluence "  and  believes  these  young  girls  and 
nervous  women  were  improperly  influenced 
by  malevolent  persons,  probably  John  and 
Tituba  the  Indian  slaves.  But  a  more  natu- 
ral explanation  is  that  they  were  the  victims 
of  hystero-epilepsy,  a  nervous  disease  not  so 
well  understood  in  the  past  as  to-day,  which 
has  at  times  convulsed  the  orderly  life  of  a 
school  or  convent,  and  even  a  whole  com- 
munity. Then,  too,  the  belief  in  witchcraft  was 
general.  Striking  coincidences,  personal  ec- 
centricities, unusual  events  and  mysterious  dis- 
eases seemed  to  find  an  easy  explanation  in 
an  unholy  compact  with  the  devil.  A  witti- 
cism attributed  to  Judge  Sewall,  one  of  the 
judges  in  these  trials,  may  help  us  to  under- 
stand the  common  panic  :  "  We  know  who  's 
who  but  not  which  is  witch."  That  was  the 
difficulty.  At  a  time  when  every  one  believed 
in  witchcraft  it  was  easy  to  suspect  one's 
neighbor.  It  was  a  characteristic  superstition 
of  the  century  and  should  be  classed  with  the 
barbarous  punishments  and  religious  intoler- 
ance of  the  age. 

Eventually,  justice,  so  far  as  possible,  was 


Salem  151 

done  to  the  survivors.  The  Legislature  voted 
pecuniary  compensations  and  the  church  ex- 
communications were  rescinded,  Ann  Putnam, 
one  of  the  more  prominent  of  the  "  afflicted 
children,"  confessed  her  error  and  prayed  for 
divine  forgiveness.  Rev.  Samuel  Parris  of- 
fered an  explanation  that  might  be  considered 
an  apology.  Judge  Sewall,  noblest  of  all  the 
civil  and  ecclesiastical  authorities  implicated  in 
this  tragedy,  stood  up  in  the  great  congrega- 
tion, Fast  Day,  in  the  South  Church,  Boston, 
and  acknowledged  his  error  in  accepting 
**  spectral  evidence," 

"  Spell  and  charm  had  power  no  more, 
The  spectres  ceased  to  roam. 
And  scattered  households  knelt  again 
Around  the  hearths  of  home." 

Salem  grew  in  wealth  and  population  slowly 
but  substantially.  In  1765  there  were  only 
4469  inhabitants.  With  the  rest  of  the  Colony 
she  was  putting  forth  her  strength  in  the  French- 
Indian  wars  and  also  resisting  what  she  termed 
the  usurpations  of  the  Royalist  governors  or 
English  Parliament.  It  was  a  public-spirited 
as  well  as  high-spirited  life.  Soldiers  and 
bounties    and    supplies   were   generously   fur- 


152  Salem 

nished  for  the  wars.  Pirates  were  captured 
or  driven  from  the  coast.  A  valuable  com- 
merce was  developed,  churches  were  built  and 
schools  increased.  In  1768  the  Essex  Gazette 
was  founded,  with  the  motto,  *'  Omne  ttilit 
punctum  qui  7nisc2tit  iitile  diilci'' — a  motto  that 
measures  the  social  changes  from  the  time  of 
Endicott  and  Williams. 

The  citizens  of  Salem  were  not  wanting  in 
patriotism  or  courage  in  the  years  immediately 
preceding  the  Revolution.  They  met  in  the 
old  town-house  to  protest  against  the  Stamp 
Act,  to  denounce  the  tax  on  tea  and  the  clos- 
ing of  Boston  port,  and  in  1774,  in  defiance 
of  General  Gage,  to  elect  delegates  to  the 
First  Continental  Congress  about  to  meet  in 
Concord.  As  early  as  1767  a  committee  had 
been  appointed  "  to  draft  a  subscription  paper 
for  promoting  industry,  economy  and  manu- 
factures in  Salem,  and  thereby  prevent  the 
unnecessary  importation  of  European  com- 
modities which  threaten  the  country  with  pov- 
erty and  ruin."  The  report  of  the  committee 
was  not  accepted  but  the  movement  was  char- 
acteristic of  the  attitude  of  Salem. 

A  just  claim  is  made  that  the  first  armed 
resistance  to  the  British  government  was  made 


<^^^^/4^^^^*<i^ 


IS3 


154  Salem 

in  Salem  at  the  North  Bridge,  Sunday,  Feb- 
ruary 26,  1775,  when  the  citizens  assembled 
and  took  their  stand  on  the  north  bank  of  the 
river  to  prevent  Colonel  Leslie  and  his  three 
hundred  soldiers  from  marching  into  North 
Fields  in  search  of  cannon  supposed  to  be 
concealed  there.  The  British  officer  thought 
of  firing  upon  the  citizens  who,  after  crossing 
the  bridge,  had  raised  the  draw  and  now  stood 
massed  on  the  opposite  bank.  But  a  towns- 
man, Captain  John  Felt,  said  to  the  irate 
officer  who  had  looked  for  an  unimpeded 
march,  "If  you  do  fire  you  will  all  be  dead 
men."  His  prompt  utterance  appears  to  have 
restrained  the  firing.  Tradition  says  that 
there  was  a  struggle  to  capture  some  boats, 
one  of  which  at  least  was  scuttled.  After  an 
hour  and  a  half  of  delay,  in  which  time  Rev. 
Mr.  Barnard  of  the  North  Church  was  con- 
spicuous for  his  moderate  counsels,  the  vexed 
and  defeated  Colonel  Leslie  promised  that  if 
the  draw  were  lowered  and  he  were  permitted 
to  march  his  men  over  it  a  distance  of  thirty 
rods,  he  would  then  wheel  about  and  leave  the 
town,  an  agreement  fairly  carried  out.  A  com- 
memorative stone  marks  this  place  and  signifi- 
cant event  at  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution. 


SOME  OLD   DOORWAYS. 


155 


156  Salem 

The  years  from  1760  to  the  War  of  181 2 
were  the  period  of  commercial  prestige.  At 
the  beofinninof  of  the  Revolution  Washintrton 
turned  to  the  coast  towns  for  a  navy,  and 
Salem  answered  by  furnishing  at  least  158 
privateers.  Many  were  the  prizes  brought 
into  the  harbor  as  the  war  continued,  and,  as 
a  result  of  this  seamanship,  an  immense  im- 
petus was  given  to  ship-building  and  the  devel- 
opment of  foreign  commerce.  This  may  be 
called  the  romantic  era  in  the  life  of  the  vener- 
able town.  At  the  close  of  the  war  the  town 
could  boast  of  its  great  merchants  and  adven- 
turous captains  whose  vessels  were  found  in 
every  port.  Where  did  they  not  go,  these 
vessels  owned  by  Derby,  Gray,  Forrester, 
Crowninshield,  and  many  another  well-known 
merchant  ! 

Under  the  stern  rule  of  Endicott  the  old 
Puritan  town  had  banished  Quakers  and  Bap- 
tists and  Episcopalians,  but  in  the  early  years 
of  this  century  her  sons  were  intimate  with 
Buddhist  and  Mohammedan  and  Parsee  mer- 
chants. In  1785  "Lord"  Derby,  as  Haw- 
thorne called  him,  sent  out  the  Grand  Ttirk 
which,  nearly  two  years  later,  brought  back 
the    first    cargo    direct   from  Canton  to   New 


Salem  157 

England.  At  this  time  it  is  with  peculiar  in- 
terest we  read  that  in  1796  this  same  "  Lord" 
Derby  sent  the  Astrea  to  Manila,  which  re- 
turned the  following  year  with  a  cargo  of 
sugar,  pepper  and  indigo  upon  which  duties 
of  over  $24,000  were  paid.  That  was  the 
time  when  a  sailing-vessel  after  a  long  voy- 
age might  enter  the  harbor  any  day,  and 
therefore  the  boys  of  the  town  lay  on  the 
rocks  at  the  Neck,  eager  to  sight  the  incoming 
ship,  and  earn  some  pocket-money  for  their 
welcome  news.  Significant  is  the  motto  on  the 
present  city  seal  :  Divitis  Indies  usque  ad  ul- 
twuLUi  sinum.  They  were  a  hardy  race — 
these  Vikings  of  New  England — bold,  self- 
reliant,  shrewd,  prosperous,  equally  ready  to 
fight  or  trade,  as  occasion  might  demand. 
The  sailors  of  that  day  were  the  native  sons 
of  Salem,  sturdy  citizens,  often  well-to-do,  who 
mipfht  have  an  "  adventure "  of  several  hun- 
dred  dollars  aboard  to  invest  in  tea  or  sugar 
or  indigo.  At  fourteen  or  fifteen  the  Salem 
boy  went  out  in  the  cabin  of  his  father's  vessel, 
at  twenty  he  was  captain,  at  forty  he  had  re- 
tired and  in  his  stately  mansion  enjoyed  the 
wealth  and  leisure  he  had  bravely  and  quickly 
earned.      In   18 16   Cleopatra s  Barge,  a  vessel 


158 


Salem 


of  190  tons  burden,  was  launched  in  the  har- 
bor, and  George  Crowninshield  went  yacht- 
ing in  the  Mediterranean  in  this  luxurious 
vessel, — perhaps  the  first  American  pleasure 
yacht,  as  much  admired  in  Europe  as  in  New 
England.  Many  are  the  traditions  of  this 
romantic  and  prosperous  era.  Many  are  the 
famous  names  of  merchants  and  sailors — men 
of  great  wealth  and  public  spirit,  mighty  in 
time  of  war  and  influential  in  affairs  of  state,  as 
Colonel  Timothy  Pickering,  and  Benjamin  W. 
Crowninshield,  esteemed  at  home  and  abroad 
for  their  enlightened,  progressive,  humane, 
public-spirited  services  to  town  and  State. 
Many  of  their  stately  man- 
sions still  remain  to  attest 
the  wealth  and  fashion  and 
gracious  hospitality  of 
that  period.  The  spacious 
rooms,  rich  in  mahogany 
furniture,  carved  wainscot- 
ing, French  mirrors,  and 
Canton  china,  were  the 
scenes  of  elegant  and  me- 
morable entertainments 
when  Washington,  Lafay- 
ette, and  many  other  celebrated  men  of  Europe 


BOWDITCH   DESK  AND 
QUADRANT. 


Salem  159 

and  America  visited  the  old  town.  As  regards 
the  beautiful  objects  of  interior  decoration, — 
now  so  eagerly  sought,  and  often  purchased 
at  high  prices, — Salem  is  one  vast  museum, 
almost  every  home  boasting  its  inherited  treas- 
ures, while  a  few  houses  are  so  richly  dowered 
that  the  envy  of  less  fortunate  housekeepers 
can  be  easily  pardoned. 

The  commerce  in  time  went  to  Boston,  and 
many  of  the  sons  of  Salem  followed  it  to  help 
build  up  the  wealth  and  character  of  the  larger 
city.  In  fact  where  have  not  the  sons,  like 
the  vessels,  of  Salem  gone  ?  Their  memory 
is  green  in  the  old  town  and  the  citizen  points 
with  pride  to  the  former  residence-site  of 
many  a  distinguished  man  she  calls  her  son  ; 
of  Bowditch,  mathematician  and  author  of  the 
famous  Navigator,  of  Judge  Story  and  his  no 
less  eminent  son,  the  poet  and  sculptor,  of  W. 
H.  Prescott,  the  heroic  historian  of  Spain,  of 
Jones  Very,  poet  and  mystic,  and  of  many 
another  man  of  mark  in  law  and  literature. 

But  of  all  the  distinguished  sons  of  Salem 
no  one  makes  so  eloquent  an  appeal  to  the 
popular  heart  as  Nathaniel  Hawthorne.  Vis- 
itors are  particularly  interested  in  the  places 
associated  with  his  life  and  romances.    Of  these 


i6o 


Salem 


there  are  many,  for  the  noveHst  Hved  at  one 
time  or  another  in  half  a  dozen  Salem  houses, 
while  several  are  identified  with  his  stories.    To 


^<L^ 


appreciate  Hawthorne  one  should  read  him 
here,  in  the  old  Puritan  town  with  its  ancient 
houses,  several  of  which  date  from  the  seven- 
teenth century,  its  commemorative  tablets, 
ancient  tombstones,  family  names,  and  the 
collections  of  the  Essex  Institute.     With  magic 


vSalem  i6i 

pen  he  traced  the  greatness  and  the  Httle- 
ness  of  the  Puritan  age,  its  austere  piety,  its 
intolerance,  its  stern  repression  of  the  hghter 
side  of  human  nature,  its  moral  grandeur  and 
its  gloomy  splendor.  He  did  for  our  past 
what  Walter  Scott  did  for  the  past  of  the 
mother-country.  Another  "  Wizard  of  the 
North,"  he  breathed  the  breath  of  life  into 
the  dry  and  dusty  materials  of  histor}^ ;  he 
summoned  the  great  dead  again  to  live  and 
move  among  us. 

The  visitor  will  be  interested  in  all  the 
houses  associated  with  his  name, — the  modest 
birthplace  on  Union  Street,  the  old  residence 
on  Turner  Street  popularly  but  erroneously 
called  the  House  of  the  Seven  Gables,  the 
Peabody  homestead,  beside  the  Old  Burying 
Point,  where  he  found  his  wife  and  also  Dr. 
Grimshawes  Secret.  The  visitor  will  be  most 
interested,  however,  in  the  three-story,  wooden 
building  with  the  front  door  opening  into  the 
little  garden  at  the  side,  after  the  fashion  of 
many  Salem  houses,  where  he  lived  when 
Surveyor  of  the  Port  and  wrote  the  immortal 
romance  of  Puritan  New  England.  Here  his 
wife  wept  over  the  woe  of  Hester  Prynne  and 
Arthur  Dimmesdale,  and  hither  came  James  T. 


i62  Salem 

Fields  to  hear  the  story  which  he  so  eagerly  ac- 
cepted. After  one  has  read  the  facts  of  history 
in  Felt  and  Upham  and  the  diaries  and  chron- 
icles of  the  seventeenth  century,  it  is  well  to  turn 
to  Hawthorne  for  the  realistic  touch  that  makes 
the  Puritan  characters  live  once  more  for  us. 
His  sombre  genius  was  at  home  in  the  Puritan 
atmosphere.  How  clearly  its  influence  over 
him  is  acknowledged  in  the  Introduction  to 
The  Scarlet  Letter  !  He  had  the  literary  taste 
and  the  literary  ambition,  and  he  found  his 
material  in  the  musty  records  of  the  Custom- 
house, in  the  town  pump  so  long  a  feature 
of  Salem  streets,  in  the  church  steeple,  the 
ancient  burying-ground,  the  old  gabled  houses, 
even  the  Main  Street  that  had  witnessed  the 
varied  pageants  of  more  than  two  centuries. 
He  was  always  leaving  Salem  and  always  re- 
turning, drawn  by  the  "  sensuous  sympathy  of 
dust  for  dust."  Here  his  ancestors  lay  buried, 
and  here,  although  he  has  said  he  was  hap- 
piest elsewhere,  lay  his  inspiration.  The 
strange  group  of  Pyncheons,  Clifford,  Hepzi- 
bah  and  the  Judge,  the  Gentle  Child,  the 
Minister  with  the  Black  Veil,  Lady  Eleanore 
in  her  rich  mantle,  and  the  tragic  group  of  The 
Scarlet  Letter — these  are  not  simply  the  crea- 


164  Salem 

tions  of  a  delicate  and  somewhat  morbid  im- 
ag^ination,  even  more  are  they  the  marvellous 
resurrection  of  a  life  long  dead. 

The  old  town  has  a  genuine  pride  in  her 
great  son  whose  fame,  assured  in  England  as 
in  America,  has  added  to  her  attractions.  But 
owing  to  his  invincible  reserve  and  long  ab- 
sences he  had  only  a  limited  acquaintance  in 
Salem,  and  there  is  comparatively  little  of  rem- 
iniscence and  anecdote  among  those  who  re- 
member him.  He  chose  his  companions  here, 
perhaps  in  reaction  from  the  intellectual  society 
he  had  had  in  Concord,  perhaps  in  search  of 
literary  material,  from  a  jovial  set  with  many 
a  capital  tale  to  tell  of  the  old  commercial 
days  when  the  Custom-house  with  its  militant 
eagle  aloft  was  the  centre  of  a  bustling,  cos- 
mopolitan life  that  surged  up  and  down  its 
steps  and  over  the  long  black  wharves  of 
Derby  Street.  Like  many  men  of  genius  his 
character  had  more  than  one  side  and  can 
now  be  studied  in  the  abundance  of  material 
which  the  unwearied  industry  of  his  children 
has  ofiven  us. 

The  novelist  has  gone,  as  the  merchant  and 
sailor  went,  as  the  Puritan  magistrate  and 
minister  went.      Another  set   of    priceless  as- 


16"; 


1 66 


Salem 


sociations  is  added  to  the  old  town  which  now 
must  confess  to  factories  and  a  foreign  popu- 
lation like  many  another  New  England  seaport. 
The  resident  of  Salem  lives  in  a  modern, 
progressive,  handsome  city,  made  the  more  at- 
tractive by  eccentric  roofs,  "  Macklntire"  door- 
ways, carved  wooden  mantels  and  wainscoting, 
ever  suggestive  of  the  venerable  and  impres- 
sive past,  a  past  that  may  well  serve  as  a 
challenge  to  the  children  of  Viking  and  Puri- 
tan, inviting  them  to  a  fine  self-control  and  a 
broad  public  spirit. 


BOSTON 


THE  TRIMOUNTAIN  CITY 


By  THOMAS  WENTWORTH  HIGGINSON 

THE  summer  traveller  who  approaches  Bos- 
ton from  the  landward  side  is  apt  to 
notice  a  tall  and  abundant  wayside  plant,  hav- 
ing a  rather  stiff  and  ungain- 
ly stem,  surmounted  by  a 
flower  with  soft  and  delicate 
petals  and  of  a  lovely  shade 
of  blue.  This  is  the  succory 
{Cichoruuu  Intybiis  of  the 
botanists),  described  by  Em- 
erson as  "  succory  to  match 
the  sky."  But  it  is  not  com- 
monly known  in  rural  New 
England  by  this  brief  name, 
beinof  oftener  called  "  Boston 
weed,"  simply  because  it 
grows  more  and  more  abundant  as  one  comes 

167 


SUCCORY  OR      BOSTON 
WEED." 


1 68  ,  Boston 

nearer  to  Lhat  city.  When  the  experienced  Bos^ 
ton  traveller,  returning  to  his  home  in  late  sum- 
mer, sees  this  fair  blossom  on  an  ungainly  stem 
assembled  profusely  by  the  roadside,  he  begins 
to  collect  his  parcels  and  hand-bags,  knowing 
that  he  approaches  his  journey's  end. 

The  original  Boston,  as  founded  by  Gov- 
ernor John  Winthrop  in  1639,  was  established 
on  a  rocky,  three-hilled  peninsula,  in  whose 
thickets  wolves  and  bears  were  yet  harbored, 
and  which  was  known  variously  as  Shawmut 
and  Trimountain.  The  settlement  itself  was 
a  sort  of  afterthought,  being;  taken  as  a  sub- 
stitute  for  Charlestown,  where  a  temporary 
abode  had  been  founded  by  Winthrop's  party. 
There  had  been  much  illness  there,  and  so 
Mr.  Blackstone,  or  Blaxtone,  who  had  for 
seven  years  been  settled  on  the  peninsula, 
urged  the  transfer  of  the  little  colony.  The 
whole  tongue  of  land  then  comprised  but  783 
acres — an  area  a  little  less  than  that  originally 
allotted  to  Central  Park  in  New  York.  Bos- 
ton now  includes  23,661  acres — about  thirty 
times  the  original  extent  of  the  peninsula.  It 
has  a  population  of  about  500,000— the  State 
Census  of  1895  showing  496,920  inhabit- 
ants.     By  the   United  States  Census  of  1890 


170  Boston 

it  had  448,477,  and  was  then  the  sixth  in 
population  among  American  cities,  being  sur- 
passed by  New  York,  Chicago,  Philadelphia, 
Brooklyn,  and  St.  Louis  ;  and  the  union  of 
New  York  and  Brooklyn  probably  making  it 
now  the  fifth.  In  1880  it  ranked  fifth,  St. 
Louis  having  since  outstripped  it.  In  1870 
it  was  only  seventh,  both  St.  Louis  and 
Baltimore  then  preceding  it.  As  with  most 
American  cities,  this  growth  has  been  partly 
due  to  the  annexing  of  suburbs  ;  but  during 
the  last  fifteen  years  there  has  been  no  such 
annexation,  showinor  the  increase  to  be  orenuine 
and  intrinsic.  The  transformation  in  other 
ways  has,  however,  been  more  astonishing  than 
the  growth.  Of  the  original  three  hills,  one 
only  is  now  noticeable  by  the  stranger.  I 
myself  can  remember  Boston,  in  my  college 
days,  as  a  pear-shaped  peninsula,  two  miles 
by  one,  attached  to  the  mainland  by  a  neck  a 
mile  long  and  only  a  few  yards  wide,  some- 
times actually  covered  by  the  meeting  of  the 
tide-waters  from  both  sides.  The  water  also 
almost  touched  Charles  Street,  where  the  Pub- 
lic Garden  now  is,  and  it  rolled  over  the  flats 
and  inlets  called  the  Back  Bay,  where  the  cost- 
liest houses  of  the  citv  now  stand. 


Boston  171 

The  changes  of  population  and  occupation 
have  been  almost  as  great  as  of  surface.  The 
blue-jacketed  sailor  was  then  a  figure  as  famil- 
iar in  the  streets  as  is  now  the  Italian  or  the 
Chinese  ;  and  the  long  wharves,  then  lined  with 
great  vessels,  two  or  three  deep,  and  fragrant 
with  spicy  Oriental  odors,  are  now  shortened, 
reduced,  and  given  over  to  tugs  and  coasters. 
Boston  is  still  the  second  commercial  port  in 
the  country  ;  but  its  commerce  is  mainly  coast- 
wise or  European  only,  and  the  picturesque 
fascination  of  the  India  trade  has  passed  away. 
Even  on  our  Northwest  Pacific  coast  the  early 
white  traders,  no  matter  whence  they  came, 
were  known  by  the  natives  as  "  Boston  men." 
The  wealth  of  the  city,  now  vastly  greater 
than  in  those  days,  flows  into  other  channels — 
railways,  factories,  and  vast  land  investments 
in  the  far  West — enterprises  as  useful,  perhaps 
more  lucrative,  but  less  picturesque.  It  is  a 
proof  of  the  vigor  and  vitality  of  Boston,  and 
partly,  also,  of  its  favorable  situation,  that  it 
has  held  its  own  through  such  transformations. 
Smaller  cities,  once  powerful,  such  as  Salem, 
Newburyport,  and  Portsmouth,  have  been 
ruined  as  to  business  by  the  withdrawal  of 
foreio-n  trade. 


172 


Boston 


Boston  has  certainly,  in  the  histor)-  of  the 
country,  represented  from  an  early  time  a 
certain  quality  of  combined  thrift  and  ardor 
which  has  made  it  to  some  extent  an  individual 
city.  Its  very  cows,  during  its  rural  period, 
shared  this  attribute,  from  the  time  when  they 
laid  out  its  streets  by  their  devious  wander- 
ings, to  the  time  when  "  Lady  Hancock" — as 
she  was  called — helped  herself   to  milk  from 


BOSTON   IN  1757. 

FROM    A    DRAWING    BY    GOVERNOR    POWNALL. 


the  herd  of  her  fellow-citizens  in  order  to 
meet  a  sudden  descent  of  official  visitors  upon 
her  husband,  the  Governor.  From  the  time 
Vv^hen  Boston  was  a  busy  little  colonial  mart — 
the  epoch  best  described  in  Hawthorne's 
Pj'ovince  House  Legaids  and  My  Kinsman 
Major  Molineux — through  the  period  when, 
as  described  in  Mrs.  Ouincy's  reminiscences, 
the  gentlemen  went  to  King's  Chapel  in  scarlet 


Boston  173 

cloaks, — down  to  the  modern  period  of  trans- 
continental railways  and  great  manufacturing 
enterprises,  the  city  has  at  least  aroused  a 
peculiar  loyalty  on  the  part  of  its  citizens. 
Behind  all  the  thunders  of  Wendell  Phillips's 
eloquence  there  lay  always  this  strong  local 
pride.  "  I  love  inexpressibly,"  he  said,  "  these 
streets  of  Boston,  over  which  my  mother  held 
up  my  baby  footsteps  ;  and  if  God  grants  me 
time  enough,  I  will  make  them  too  pure  to  be 
trodden  by  the  footsteps  of  a  slave."  He  sur- 
vived to  see  his  dream  fulfilled.  Instead  of  the 
surrendered  slave,  Anthony  Burns,  marching 
in  a  hollow  square,  formed  by  the  files  of  the 
militia,  Phillips  lived  to  see  the  fair-haired  boy, 
Robert  Shaw,  riding  at  the  head  of  his  black 
reeiment,  to  aid  in  securing  the  freedom  of  a  race. 
During  the  Revolution,  Boston  was  the  cen- 
tre of  those  early  struggles  on  which  it  is  now 
needless  to  dwell.  Faneuil  Hall  still  stands 
— the  place  from  which,  in  1774,  a  letter  as 
to  grievances  was  ordered  to  be  sent  to  the 
other  towns  in  the  State  ;  the  old  State  House 
is  standing,  where  the  plans  suggested  by  the 
Virginia  House  of  Burgesses  were  adopted  ; 
the  old  South  Church  remains,  whence  the 
disguised    Indians    of   the    Boston    Tea- Party 


1 74  Boston 

went  forth,  and  where  Dr.  Warren,  on  March 
5,  1775,  defied  the  British  officers,  and  when 
one  of  them  held  up  warningly  some  pistol- 
bullets,  dropped  his  handkerchief  over  them 
and  went  on.  The  Old  North  or  Christ 
Church  also  remains,  where  the  two  lights 
were  hung-  out  as  the  signal  for  Paul  Revere's 
famous  ride,  on  the  eve  of  the  battle  of 
Lexington. 

So  prominent  was  Boston  during  this  period 
that  it  even  awakened  the  jealousy  of  other 
colonies  ;  and  Mr.  Thomas  Shirley,  of  Charles- 
ton, South  Carolina,  said  to  Josiah  Ouincy, 
Jr.,  in  March,  1773  :  "  Boston  aims  at  nothing 
less  than  the  sovereignty  of  this  whole  conti- 
nent. .  .  .  Take  away  the  power  and  su- 
perintendence of  Britain,  and  the  colonies 
must  submit  to  the  next  power.  Boston  would 
soon  have  that." 

One  of  the  attractions  of  Boston  has  long 
been,  that  in  this  city,  as  in  Edinburgh,  might 
be  found  a  circle  of  literary  men,  better  organ- 
ized and  more  concentrated  than  if  lost  in  the 
confusion  of  a  larger  metropolis.  From  the 
point  of  view  of  New  York,  this  circle  might  be 
held  provincial,  as  Edinburgh  no  doubt  seemed 
from  London  ;  and  the  resident  of  the  larger 


Copyntri't  by  Daiutl  W.  ColLati! 

&  Co.,  Boston,  1895.  "old  CORNER    BOOKSTORE. 


175 


1 76  Boston 

community  might  scornfully  use  about  the  Bos- 
tonian  the  saying  attributed  to  Dr.  Johnson 
about  the  Scotchman,  that  "  much  might  be 
made  of  him  if  caught  young."  Indeed,  much 
of  New  York's  best  literary  material  came 
always  from  New  England  ;  just  as  Scotland 
still  holds  its  own  in  London  literature.  No 
doubt  each  place  has  its  advantages,  but  there 
was  a  time  when  one  might  easily  meet  in  a 
day,  in  one  Boston  bookstore — as,  for  instance, 
in  the  "Old  Corner  Bookstore,"  built  in  1712, 
and, still  used  for  the  same  trade — such  men  as 
Emerson,  Parker,  Longfellow,  Lowell,  Holmes, 
Whittier,  Sumner,  Agassiz,  Parkman,  Whipple, 
Hale,  Aldrich,  and  Howells ;  such  women 
as  Lydia  Maria  Child  and  Julia  Ward  Howe. 
Now,  if  we  consider  how  much  of  American  lit- 
erature is  represented  by  these  few  names,  it  is 
evident  that  if  Boston  was  never  metropolitan, 
it  at  least  had  a  combination  of  literary  ability 
such  as  no  larger  American  city  has  yet  rivalled. 
I  remember  vividly  an  occasion  when  I  was 
required  to  select  a  high-school  assistant  for 
the  city  where  I  then  lived  (Newport,  Rhode 
Island),  and  I  had  appointed  meetings  with 
several  candidates  at  the  bookstore  of  Fields 
&    Oseood  at    Boston.      While   I   was  talkincr 


^!!^^i>t^A^ 


a^-Kii.^^ 


^i^f/'^^^i.jmyf 


-i-ii 


178  Boston 

with  the  most  promising  of  these — the  daugh- 
ter of  a  clergyman  in  northern  Vermont — I 
saw  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes  pass  through  the  shop, 
and  pointed  him  out  to  her.  She  gazed  eagerly 
after  him  until  he  was  out  of  sight,  and  then 
said,  drawing  a  long  breath,  "  I  must  write  to 
my  father  and  sister  about  this  !  Up  in 
Peacham  we  think  a  great  deal  of  authors  ! " 

Certainly  a  procession  of  foreign  princes  or 
American  millionaires  would  have  impressed 
her  and  her  correspondents  far  less.  It  was 
like  the  feeling  that  Americans  are  apt  to  have 
when  they  first  visit  London  or  Paris  and  see 
— in  Willis's  phrase — "whole  shelves  of  their 
library  walking  about  in  coats  and  gowns  "  ; 
and,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  every  winter 
brings  to  Boston  a  multitude  of  young  people 
whose  expressed  sensations  are  very  much  like 
those  felt  by  Americans  when  they  first  cross 
the  ocean. 

The  very  irregularity  of  the  city  adds  to  its 
attraction,  since  most  of  our  newer  cities  are  apt 
to  look  too  resfular  and  too  monotonous.  For- 
eign  dialects  have  greatly  increased  within  a  few 
years  ;  for  although  the  German  element  has 
never  been  large,  the  Italian  population  is  con- 
stantly increasing,  and  makes  itself  very  appar- 


i8o  Boston 

ent  to  the  ear,  as  does  also  latterly  the  Russian. 
Books  and  newspapers  in  this  last  tongue  are 
always  in  demand.  Statues  of  eminent  Bos- 
tonians — Winthrop,  Franklin,  Samuel  Adams, 
Webster,  Garrison,  Everett,  Horace  Mann, 
and  others — are  distributed  about  the  city,  and 
though  not  always  beautiful  as  examples  of  art, 
are  suQ^eestive  of  dignified  memories.  Institu- 
tions  of  importance  are  on  all  sides,  and  though 
these  are  not  different  in  kind  from  those  now 
numerous  in  all  vigorous  American  cities,  yet  in 
Boston  they  often  claim  a  longer  date  or  more 
historic  associations.  The  great  Public  Li- 
brary still  leads  American  institutions  of  its 
class ;  and  the  Art  Museum  had  a  similar 
leadership  until  the  rapid  expansion  of  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  New  York  City. 
The  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology 
and  the  New  England  Conservatory  of  Music 
educate  large  numbers  of  pupils  from  all  parts 
of  the  Union  ;  while  Boston  University  and 
Boston  College  hold  an  honored  place  among 
their  respective  constituencies.  Harvard  Uni- 
versity, Tufts  College,  and  Wellesley  College 
are  not  far  distant.  The  Boston  Athenaeum 
is  an  admirable  model  of  a  society  library. 
The   public-school    system  of    Boston  has  in 


Boston  i8i 

times  past  had  a  great  reputation,  and  still  re- 
tains it ;  though  it  is  claimed  that  the  newer 
systems  of  the  Western  States  are  in  some  de- 
gree surpassing  it.  The  Normal  Art  School 
of  the  State  is  in  Boston  ;  and  the  city  has  its 
own  Normal  School  for  common-school  teach- 
ers. The  free  lectures  of  the  Lowell  Institute 
are  a  source  of  instruction  to  large  numbers 
every  season  ;  and  there  are  schools  and  classes 
in  various  directions,  maintained  from  the 
same  foundation.  The  great  collections  of 
the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History  are 
open  to  the  public  ;  and  the  Bostonian  Society 
has  been  unwearied  in  its  efforts  to  preserve 
and  exhibit  all  memorials  of  local  history. 
The  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  includes 
among  its  possessions  the  remarkable  private 
library  of  Thomas  Dowse,  which  was  regarded 
as  one  of  the  wonders  of  Cambridge  fifty  years 
ago,  and  it  possesses  also  the  invaluable  manu- 
script collections  brought  together  by  Francis 
Parkman  when  preparing  his  great  series  of 
histories.  The  New  England  Historic-Gen- 
ealogical Society  has  a  vast  and  varied  store 
of  materials  in  the  way  of  local  and  genealogi- 
cal annals  ;  and  the  Loyal  Legion  has  a  library 
and  museum  of  war  memorials. 


182 


Boston 


For  man)'  years  there  has  been  in  Boston  a 
strong  interest  in  physical  education — an  in- 
terest which  has  passed  through  various  phases, 
but  is  now  manifested  in  such  strong  institutions 

as  the  Athletic 
Club  and  the 
Country  Club — 
the  latter  for 
rural  recreation. 
There  is  at 
Char  1  e  sbank, 
beside  the 
Charles  River,  a 
public  open-air 
g  y  m  n  a  s  i  u  m 
which  attracts  a 
large  constitu- 
ency ;  and  there 
is,  what  is  espe- 
ciall)-  desirable, 
a  class  for  wo- 
men and  child- 
ren, with  pri- 
vate grounds  and  buildings.  It  is  under  most 
efficient  supervision,  and  is  accomplishing 
great  good.  There  are  some  ten  playgrounds 
kept  open  at  unused  schoolhouses  during  the 


CHARLES  SUMNER. 


Boston  183 

summer  vacations,  these  being  fitted  up  with 
swings,  sand-pens,  and  sometimes  flower-beds, 
and  properly  superintended.  A  great  system 
of  parks  has  now  been  planned,  and  partly  es- 
tablished, around  Boston,  the  largest  of  these 
being  Franklin  Park,  near  Egleston  Square  ; 
while  the  system  includes  also  the  Arnold 
Arboretum,  the  grounds  around  Chestnut  Hill 
Reservoir  and  Jamaica  Pond,  with  a  Marine 
Park  at  South  Boston.  Most  of  these  are 
easily  accessible  by  steam  or  electric  cars, 
which  are  now  reached  from  the  heart  of  the 
city,  in  many  cases  through  subways,  and  will 
soon  be  supplemented  or  superseded,  on  the 
more  important  routes,  by  elevated  roads. 
The  steam  railways  of  the  city  are  also  to 
have  their  stations  combined  into  a  Northern 
and  a  Southern  Union  Station,  of  which  the 
former  is  already  in  use  and  the  latter  in  pro- 
cess of  construction. 

This  paper  is  not  designed  to  be  a  catalogue 
of  the  public  institutions  and  philanthropies  of 
Boston,  but  aims  merely  to  suggest  a  few  of  the 
characteristic  forms  which  such  activities  have 
taken.  Nor  is  it  written  with  the  desire  to 
praise  Boston  above  her  sisters  among  Ameri- 
can cities  ;  for  it  is  a  characteristic  of  American 


1 84 


Boston 


society  that,  in  spite  of  the  outward  uniformity- 
attributed  to  the  nation,  each  city  has  never- 
theless its  own 
characteristics  ; 
and  each  may 
often  learn  from 
the  others.  This 
is  simply  one  of 
a  series  of  pa- 
pers, each  with 
a  specific  sub- 
ject and  each 
confined  to  its 
own  theme. 
The  inns,  the 
theatres,  the 
club-houses  of  a 
city,  strangers 
are  likely  to  dis- 
cover for  them- 
selves ;  but  there  are  further  objects  of  in- 
terest not  always  so  accessible.  For  want 
of  a  friendly  guide,  they  may  miss  what  would 
most  interest  them.  It  is  now  nearly  two 
hundred  years  since  an  English  traveller 
named  Edward  Ward  thus  described  the  Bos- 
ton of  1699  : 


Copyright  by  H.  G.  Smith,  Boston,  1893. 
PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


Boston  185 

"  On  the  southwest  side  of  Massachusetts  Bay  is  Bos- 
ton, whose  name  is  taken  from  a  town  in  Lincolnshire, 
and  is  the  metropolis  of  all  New  England.  The  houses 
in  some  parts  joyn,  as  in  London.  The  buildings,  like 
their  women,  being  neat  and  handsome.  And  their 
streets,  like  the  hearts  of  the  male  inhabitants,  being 
paved  with  pebble." 

The  leadership  of  Boston  in  a  thousand 
works  of  charity  and  kindness,  during  these 
two  centuries,  has  completely  refuted  the  hasty 
censure  of  this  roving  Englishman  ;  and  it  is  to 
be  hoped  that  the  Boston  of  the  future,  like 
the  Boston  of  the  past,  will  do  its  fair  share  in 
the  development  of  that  ampler  American  civil- 
ization of  which  all  present  achievements 
suggest  only  the  promise  and  the  dawn. 


REVOLUTIONARY  BOSTON 

''  Then  and  there  American  Independence  was  born." 
By  EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE 

THE  American  Revolution  began  in  Boston. 
Different  dates  are  set  for  the  begin- 
ning. John  Adams  says  of  Otis's  speech  in 
1 76 1  in  the  Council  Chamber  of  the  Old 
State  House,  "  Then  and  there  American 
Independence  was  born."  The  visitor  to  Bos- 
ton should  go,  very  early  in  his  visit,  into  the 
Old  State  House  ;  and  when  he  stands  in  the 
Council  Chamber  he  will  remember  that  as  dis- 
tinguished a  person  as  John  Adams  fixed  that 
place  as  the  birthplace  of  independence. 

But  one  does  not  understand  the  history  of 
the  opening  of  the  great  struggle  without 
going  back  a  whole  generation.  It  was  in 
1 745  that  Governor  William  Shirley  addressed 
the  Massachusetts  General  Court  in  a  secret 
session.      He    brought    before    them    a    plan 


1 88  Revolutionary  Boston 

which  he  had  for  the  conquest  of  Louisburg 
in  the  next  spring,  before  it  could  be  re- 
inforced from  France.  The  General  Court 
(which  means  the  general  assembly  of  Massa- 
chusetts) at  first  doubted  the  possibility  of  suc- 
cess of  so  bold  an  attempt ;  but  eventually 
Shirley  persuaded  them  to  undertake  it.  The 
Province  of  New  Hampshire  and  that  of  Con- 
necticut co-operated,  and  their  army  of  pro- 
vincials, with  some  assistance  from  Warren 
of  the  English  navy,  took  Louisbourg,  which 
capitulated  on  the  17th  of  June,  1745.  Ob- 
serve that  the  17th  of  June  is  St.  Botolph's 
day ;  and  that  he  is  the  godfather  of  Bos- 
ton. 

When  Louis  XV.  was  told  that  this  hand- 
ful of  provincials  had  taken  the  Gibraltar  of 
America,  he  was  very  angry.  In  the  next 
spring,  the  spring  of  i  746,  with  a  promptness 
and  secrecy  which  make  us  respect  the  admin- 
istration of  the  French  navy,  a  squadron  of 
more  than  forty  ships  of  war,  and  transports 
sufficient  to  bring  an  army  of  three  thousand 
men,  was  fitted  out  in  France  and  despatched 
to  America,  with  the  definite  and  acknow- 
ledged purpose  of  wiping  Boston  from  the 
face  of  the  earth  : 


190 


Revolutionary  Boston 


"  For  this  Admiral  D'Anville 

Had  sworn  by  cross  and  crown 
To  ravage  with  fire  and  steel 
Our  helpless  Boston  town." 


GOVERNOR  THOMAS  HUTCHINSON. 

AFTER    A    PORTRAIT    IN    POSSESSION    OF    THE    MASSACHUSETTS    HISTORICAL   SOCIETY, 
ONCE   THE    PROPERTY    OF   JONATHAN    MAYHEW. 

It  was  a  disgrace  to  the  military  and  naval 
organizations  of  England  at  the  same  time,  that 
they  had  so  little  information  there  on  the 
subject. 


Revolutionary  Boston  191 

They  found  out  at  last  that  this  immense 
French  fleet  had  sailed  or  was  sailing.  I  think 
that  it  was  the  strongest  expedition  ever  sent 
from  Europe  to  America  between  Columbus's 
time  and  our  own.  Some  blundering  attempts 
to  meet  it  were  made  by  the  English  Admir- 
alty. But  their  admiral  had  to  make  the  lame 
excuse  that  seven  times  he  tried  to  go  to 
sea  and  seven  times  he  was  driven  back 
by  gales.  Whatever  the  gales  were,  they  did 
not  stop  D'Anville  and  his  Armada,  and  poor 
Boston,  which  was  to  be  destroyed,  our  dear 
little  "town  of  hen-coops,"  clustering  around 
the  mill-pond,  knew  as  little  of  the  fate  pre- 
pared for  it  as  the  British  Admiralty.  It  was 
not  until  the  month  of  September,  i  746,  that  a 
fishing-boat  from  the  Banks,  crowding  all  sail, 
came  into  Boston  and  reported  to  Governor 
Shirley  that  her  men  had  seen  the  largest  fleet 
of  the  largest  vessels  which  they  had  ever  seen 
in  their  lives,  and  that  these  were  French  ves- 
sels. Shirley  at  once  called  his  Council  to- 
gether and  "  summoned  the  train  bands  of  the 
Province."  The  Council  sank  ships  laden  with 
stones  in  the  channels  of  the  harbor.  Hasty 
fortifications  were  built  upon  the  islands,  and 
Shirley  mounted  upon  them  such  guns  as  he 


192  Revolutionary  Boston 

could  bring  together.  The  "train  bands"  of 
the  Province  promptly  obeyed  the  call,  and  for 
the  next  two  months  near  seven  thousand  sol- 
diers were  encamped  on  Boston  Common,  ready 
for  any  movement  which  the  descent  of  D'An- 
ville  might  require.  Cautious,  wise,  and  strong 
beyond  any  of  his  successors  in  his  office,  Shir- 
ley put  his  hand  upon  the  throttle  of  the 
newspapers.  D'Anville  should  not  learn,  nor 
should  anybody  learn,  that  he  had  an  army  in 
Boston  or  that  he  knew  his  danger.  And  so 
you  may  read  the  modest  files  of  the  Boston 
papers  of  that  day  and  you  shall  find  no  refer- 
ence to  these  military  movements  of  which 
every  man  and  woman  and  child  in  Boston 
was  thinking.  It  is  not  till  his  young  wife 
dies  that,  by  some  accident  in  an  editorial 
room,  the  confession  slips  into  print  that  the 
train  bands  of  the  Province  accompanied  her 
body  to  its  grave. 

It  was  the  only  military  duty  which  was 
required  of  that  army  of  six  thousand  four 
hundred.  The  people  of  the  times  would  have 
told  you,  every  man  and  woman  of  them,  that 
the  Lord  of  Hosts  had  other  methods  for 
defending  Boston. 

What  happened,  or,  if  you  please,  what  tran- 


THE  OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH    IN    ITS   PRESENT  CONDITION. 

^93  BUiLT    IN     1729. 


194  Revolutionary  Boston 

spired,  was  this  :  Among  his  other  prepara- 
tions for  his  enemy,  Shirley  proclaimed  a 
solemn  Fast  Day,  in  which  the  people  should 
meet  in  all  their  meeting-houses  and  seek 
the  help  of  the  Almighty,  and  they  did  so. 
Thomas  Prince,  of  the  Old  South  Meeting- 
house, tells  us  what  happened  there.  In  the 
morning,  a  crowded  congregation  joined  in 
prayer,  and  Prince  told  them  of  their  danger 
and  exhorted  them  to  their  duty.  In  the  after- 
noon the  assembly  met  again.  As  Prince  led 
them  in  their  prayer,  what  seemed  a  hurricane 
from  the  southwest  struck  the  meeting-house. 
A  generation  after,  men  remembered  how 
the  steeple  above  them  shook  in  the  gale,  and 
Prince  went  on,  calmly,  in  his  address  to  the 
God  who  rides  on  the  whirlwind  : 

"  We  do  not  presume  to  advise,  O  Lord, 
but  if  Thy  Providence  requires  that  this  tem- 
pest shall  sweep  the  invaders  from  the  sea,  we 
shall  be  content." 

And  this  was  precisely  what  happened  : 
This  southwest  gale  tore  down  the  Bay.  This 
side  Cape  Sable,  just  off  Grand  Manan,  it 
found  D'Anville's  squadron  in  its  magnificent 
array.  It  drove  ship  against  ship.  It  cap- 
sized and  sank  some  of   the  noblest  vessels. 


Revolutionary  Boston  195 

It  tore  the  masts  out  of  others.  It  discour- 
aged their  crews  and  their  officers.  All  that 
was  left  of  this  gallant  squadron  (which  was  to 
burn  our  "  hen-coops "  here)  took  refuge  in 
Halifax  Bay  or  crept  back  under  jury-masts  to 
France.  In  the  harbor  of  Chebucto,  as  they 
called  Halifax,  the  wrecks  of  the  fleet  were 
repaired  as  best  they  might  be.  D'Anville 
and  his  first  officer  both  died,  one  as  a  suicide, 
and  the  other  from  the  disgrace  of  the  discom- 
fiture. It  is  said  in  Nova  Scotia  that  you 
may  see  some  of  the  ships  now,  if  you  will 
look  down  at  the  right  place  in  the  clear  sea, 
off  Cape  Sable.  A  miserable  handful  of  the 
vessels  straggled  back  to  France  at  the  open- 
ingr  of  the  winter. 

The  colonists  of  New  England  had  thus 
learned  two  lessons,  one  in  1745,  and  one  in 
1746.  In  1745  they  had  learned  that  without 
any  assistance  from  their  own  king  they  could 
storm  and  take  the  strongest  fortress  in 
America.  In  1746  they  learned  that  the  an- 
ger of  the  strongest  prince  in  Europe  was 
powerless  against  them.  Those  who  believed 
in  the  immediate  providence  of  God  thought 
that  He  stretched  out  His  arm  in  their  defense. 
Those  who  did  not,  thought  that  in  the  general 


196  Revolutionary  Boston 

providence  of  God,  a  people  who  were  three 
thousand  miles  away  from  the  greatest  sov- 
ereign of  the  world  might  safely  defy  his 
wrath.  Curiously  enough,  in  the  next  year, 
1747,  the  people  of  Boston  had  an  opportunity 
to  learn  a  third  lesson  by  measuring  strength 
with  their  own  sovereign. 

In  that  year  Admiral  Knowles,  in  command 
of  the  English  squadron, — rather  a  favorite 
till  then,  I  fancy,  with  the  people  here, — hap- 
pened to  want  seamen.  He  availed  himself  of 
that  bit  of  unwritten  law  which  held  in  Eng- 
land till  within  my  own  memory,  by  impress- 
ing seamen  from  the  docks.  A  memorial  of 
the  General  Court  says  that  the  English  gov- 
ernment had  carried  this  matter  so  far  that, 
as  they  believed,  three  thousand  Americans 
were  at  that  tim.e  in  the  service  of  the  British 
navy,  having  been  unwillingly  impressed  there. 
But  Knowles  carried  it  farther  yet.  He  took 
on  board  his  fleet  some  hundreds  of  ship- 
carpenters,  mechanics,  and  laboring  men  ;  and 
Boston  broke  out  into  a  blaze  of  excitement 
and  fury.  There  followed  the  first  of  the 
series  of  proceedings  which,  with  various  modi- 
fications, lasted  for  thirty  years,  until  General 
Howe  withdrew  the  British  fleet  and  army  from 


OLD  STATE  HOUSE. 


198  Revolutionary  Boston 

Boston.  It  was  a  combination  of  riots  and 
town-meetings,  the  town-meetings  expressing 
seriously  what  the  rioters  did  not  express  so 
well,  the  rioters  giving  a  certain  emphasis, 
such  as  was  understood  in  England,  as  to 
the  intention  of  the  town-meetings  of  Boston. 
We  have  the  most  amusing  details  of  this 
affair  in  a  very  valuable  and  interesting  his- 
tory just  published  by  Mr.  John  Noble.  The 
rioters  seized  Knowles's  officers  whom  they 
found  in  the  town,  and  shut  them  up  for  host- 
ages. Knowles  declared  that  he  would  bom- 
bard the  town.  But  what  with  the  General 
Court  and  the  town-meetings  and  the  magis- 
trates and  the  rest,  he  was  soothed  down,  the 
people  gave  up  their  hostages,  and  he  gave  up 
the  men  whom  he  had  seized.  Boston  had 
measured  forces  in  this  affair  with  King 
George.  Both  were  satisfied  with  the  result  ; 
and,  if  I  may  so  speak,  this  first  tussle  ended 
in  a  tie. 

Here  were  three  trials  of  strength  in  three 
years.  And  the  Boston  people  learned  in  each 
of  them  the  elements  of  their  real  power. 
When,  nearly  twenty  years  after,  Otis  made 
his  eloquent  protest  against  the  Writs  of 
Assistance,  he   did  not  succeed.     The  Court 


199 


200  Revolutionary  Boston 

decided  that  the  Province  must  permit  the 
officers  to  make  the  searches  in  private  houses 
which  the  Crown  asked.  But  there  was  a 
point  gained,  in  the  confession  that  the  Crown 
must  ask,  and  thinking  men  took  note  of  that 
confession. 

"  Sam  "  Adams,  as  he  was  always  affection- 
ately called,  had  graduated  at  Harvard  College 
in  I  740.  There  is  no  direct  evidence  known  to 
me,  but  without  it  I  believe  that  almost  from 
that  time  Sam  Adams  was  the  inspiring  genius 
of  one  or  more  private  clubs  in  which  the  young 
men  of  Boston  were  trained  in  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  independence.  On  the 
other  side  it  may  be  said  that  from  the  mo- 
ment when  Quebec  fell  the  home  government 
of  England  did  everything  that  can  be  con- 
ceived of  to  disgust  and  alienate  the  people  of 
Boston.  The  disgust  showed  itself  now  in 
grumbling,  now  in  physical  violence.  In  the 
midst  of  it  all  there  was  one  quiet  leader  be- 
hind the  scenes.  Sam  Adams  had  the  confi- 
dence of  the  gentry  and  of  the  people  both. 
When  he  wanted  a  grave  and  dignified  expres- 
sion of  opinion  he  had  a  town-meeting  called, 
and  then  this  town-meeting  heard  speeches 
and    passed    resolutions    of    such  dignity    and 


^^^''^^^^a'^^:,*;^    c^^t 


^U^17^^ 


202  Revolutionary  Boston 

gravity  as  were  worthy  of  any  senate  in  the 
world.  On  the  other  hand,  if  Sam  Adams 
needed  to  give  emphasis  to  such  resolution, 
the  mob  of  Boston  appeared  in  her  streets, 
did  what  he  wanted  it  to  do,  and  stopped 
when  he  wanted  it  to  stop.  It  is  fair  to  say 
that  George  III.'s  ministers  lost  their  heads 
in  their  rage  against  the  riots  of  Boston. 
The  Boston  Port  Bill,  the  maddest  and  most 
useless  act  of  vengeance,  was  aimed  at  the 
Boston  mob ;  and  yet  in  the  thirty  years  be- 
tween Louisbourg  and  Lexington  this  riotous 
mob  of  Boston  never  drew  a  drop  of  human 
blood  in  all  its  excesses.  And  this,  though 
once  and  again  the  soldiers  and  sailors  of 
England  killed  one  and  another  of  the  peo- 
ple. 

Now  to  follow  along  step  by  step  the  visible 
memorials  of  the  war,  I  advise  you  to  go  to 
Roxbury  through  Washington  Street  by  one  of 
the  Belt-line  cars.  The  very  name,  Washing- 
ton Street,  should  remind  you  that  Washington 
rode  in  in  triumph  by  this  highway  on  the  i  7th 
of  March,  1776,  the  day  when  General  Howe 
and  the  English  troops  evacuated  the  town. 
Let  the  car  drop  you  at  the  Providence  railway 
crossing  in  Roxbury  and  take  another  car  to 


204  Revolutionary  Boston 

Brookline  ;  or  go  on  foot.  All  this  time  you 
have  been  on  the  track  of  the  English  general, 
Lord  Percy,  who  was  sent  out  with  his  column 
to  reinforce  Colonel  Smith,  who  had  charge  of 
the  earlier  column  sent  against  Concord,  on 
the  day  of  the  battle  of  Lexington.  You  can, 
if  you  choose,  on  your  wheel  or  on  your  feet, 
go  into  Cambridge  with  this  column  ;  but  take 
care  not  to  cross  Charles  River  by  the  first 
bridge,  but  by  that  where  the  students'  boat- 
houses  are,  on  the  road  which  becomes  Boyls- 
ton  Street  as  you  enter  Cambridge.  You 
may  then  go  on  to  Lexington  and  Concord. 

On  another  day,  start  from  Cambridge  at 
the  Law  School.  This  stands  on  the  very  site 
of  the  old  parsonage — General  Ward's  head- 
quarters. The  evening  before  the  battle  of 
Bunker  Hill,  Prescott's  division  was  formed 
in  parade  here  and  joined  in  prayer  with  the 
minister  of  Cambridge  before  they  marched  to 
Bunker  Hill.  Anybody  will  show  you  Kirk- 
land  Street,  which  is  the  name  now  given  to 
the  beofinnine  of  "  Milk  Row,"  the  road  over 
which  they  crossed  to  Charlestown.  If  you 
are  afraid  to  walk,  take  your  wheel.  Two 
miles,  more  or  less,  will  bring  you  eastward  to 
Charlestown  Neck.      Then  turn  to  your  right 


2o6  Revolutionary  Boston 

and  walk  to  Bunker  Hill  iMonument,  which 
you  can  hardly  fail  to  see. 

It  is  quite  worth  while  to  ascend  the  monu- 
ment. It  gives  you  an  excellent  chance  to 
obey  Dr.  Arnold's  rule  and  study  the  topo- 
graphy on  the  spot.  You  cannot  fail  to  see 
the  United  States  Navy  Yard  just  at  your  feet. 
Here  Howe's  forces  gathered  for  the  attack 
on  Prescott's  works  on  the  day  of  the  battle. 
And  to  the  shore  they  retired  after  they  were 
flung  back  in  the  first  two  unsuccessful  attacks. 

In  the  mad  attack  on  Prescott's  works,  Gen- 
eral Gage  lost,  in  killed  and  wounded,  one  quar- 
ter of  his  little  army.  What  was  left  became  the 
half-starved  garrison  of  Boston.  I  say  "  mad  at- 
tack," because  Gage  had  only  to  order  a  gun- 
boat to  close  the  retreat  of  the  American  force, 
and  he  could  have  starved  it  into  surrender. 
But  such  delay  was  unworthy  of  the  dignity  of 
English  generals,  or,  as  they  then  called  them- 
selves, "  British  "  generals.  It  is  to  be  remem- 
bered that  this  use  of  the  word  "  British,"  now 
much  laughed  at,  was  the  fashionable  habit  of 
those  times. 

The  date  of  the  battle  was  June  17,  1775. 
Oddly  enough,  this  had  long  been  the  saint's 
day   of   St.    Botolph,   the   East   Anglian  saint 


Revolutionary  Boston  207 

for  whom  Boston  in  England  was  named.  It 
seems  probable,  however,  that  this  odd  coinci- 
dence was  never  noticed  for  a  hundred  years. 
Since  the  majority  of  the  people  of  Boston 
and  Charlestown  have  been  Catholics,  it  has 
attracted  attention. 

From  that  date  to  March  17,  1776,  the  date 
just  now  alluded  to,  Boston  and  the  English 
army  were  blockaded  by  the  American  troops. 
They  had  gathered  on  the  day  after  Lexing- 
ton, commanded  at  first  by  Artemas  Ward,  the 
commander  of  the  militia  of  Massachusetts,  and 
afterwards  by  Washington,  with  Ward  as  his 
first  major-general.  The  English  retained  their 
hold  on  Charlestown,  but  once  and  again  the 
Americans  attacked  their  forces  there.  They 
never  marched  out  beyond  Boston  Neck  or 
Charlestown  Neck. 

On  the  south,  their  most  advanced  works 
were  where  are  now  two  little  parks.  Black- 
stone  Square  and  Franklin  Square,  on  the 
west  and  east  sides  of  Washington  Street,  re- 
spectively. They  had  a  square  redoubt  on 
the  Common,  where  is  now  a  monument  to  the 
heroes  of  the  Civil  War.  A  little  eastward  of 
this  was  a  hill  called  Fox  Hill,  which  was  dug 
away  to   make  the   Charles   Street  of  to-day. 


2o8  Revolutionary  Boston 

Farther  west,  where  the  ground  is  now  cov- 
ered with  buildings,  were  two  or  three  re- 
doubts, generally  called  forts,  by  which  they 
meant  to  prevent  the  landing  of  the  Americans. 

At  that  time  Beacon  Hill  was  much  higher 
than  it  is  now.  Exactly  on  the  point  now 
marked  by  a  monument,  a  monument  was 
erected  after  the  Revolution,  in  commemora- 
tion of  the  events  of  the  year  when  it  began. 
The  present  monument — completed  lately — is 
an  exact  imitation  of  the  first,  but  that  this  is 
of  stone,  and  that  was  of  brick.  This  has  the 
old  inscriptions. 

Washington  drove  out  the  English  by  erect- 
ing the  stronor  works  on  what  was  then  called 
Dorchester  Heights,  which  we  now  call  South 
Boston.  The  places  where  most  of  these 
works  existed  are  marked  by  inscriptions.  In- 
dependence Square  is  on  the  site  of  one  of 
them. 

The  careful  traveller  may  go  out  to  Rox- 
bury,  follow  up  Highland  Street  and  turn  to 
the  right,  and  he  will  find  an  interesting  me- 
morial of  one  of  the  strong  works  built  by 
General  Ward.  From  this  point,  north  and 
east,  each  of  the  towns  preserves  some  relic  of 
the  same  kind.       In  Cambridge  one  is  marked 


THE   FROG  POND  ON  THE  COMMON 
AS  IT  NOW  APPEARS. 


209 


2IO  Revolutionary  Boston 

by  a  public  square,  on  which  the  national  flag^ 
is  generally  floating. 

At  the  North  End  of  Boston,  where  is  now, 
and  was  then,  the  graveyard  of  Copp's  Hill, 
the  English  threw  up  some  batteries.  These 
are  now  obliterated,  but  the  point  is  interest- 
ing in  Revolutionary  history,  because  it  was 
from  this  height  that  Gage  and  Burgoyne  saw 
their  men  flung  back  by  the  withering  fire  of 
Bunker  Hill. 


CAMBRIDGE 


By  SAMUEL  A.  ELIOT 

"  There  is  no  place  like  it,  no,  not  even  for  taxes." 

Lo-cveW s  Letters,  ii.,  I02. 

THE  early  history  of  New  England  seems 
to  many  minds  dry  and  unromantic.  No 
mist  of  distance  softens  the  harsh  outlines,  no 
mirage  of  tradition  lifts  events  or  characters 
into  picturesque  beauty,  and  there  seems  a 
poverty  of  sentiment.  The  transplanting  of  a 
people  breaks  the  successions  and  associations 
of  history.  No  memories  of  Crusader  and 
Conqueror  stir  the  imagination.  Instead  of 
the  glitter  of  chivalry  we  have  but  the  sombre 
homespun  of  Puritan  peasants.  Instead  of 
the  castles  and  cathedrals  on  which  time  has 
laid  a  hand  of  benediction  we  have  but  the 
rude  log  meeting-house  and  schoolhouse.  In- 
stead of  Christmas  merriment  the  voice  of  our 
past  brings  to  us  only  the  noise  of  axe  and 


212  Cambridge 

hammer,  or  the  dreary  droning  of  Psalms.  It 
seems  bleak,  and  destitute  of  poetic  inspiration  ; 
at  once  plebeian  and  prosaic. 

But  I  cannot  help  feeling  that  if  we  look  be- 
neath the  uncouth  exterior  we  shall  find  in 
New  England  history  much  idealism,  much 
that  can  inspire  noble  daring  and  feed  the 
springs  of  romance.  Out  of  the  hard  soil  of 
the  Puritan  thought,  out  of  the  sterile  rocks 
of  the  New  England  conscience,  spring  flowers 
of  poetry.  This  story  of  the  planting  of  Cam- 
bridge has — if  I  might  linger  on  it — a  wealth 
of  dramatic  interest,  not  indeed  in  its  antiquity, 
— it  is  but  a  story  of  yesterday, — but  in  the  hu- 
man associations  that  belong  to  it  and  the 
patriotic  memories  it  stirs.  The  Cambridge 
dust  is  eloquent  of  the  long  procession  of 
saints  and  sages,  scholars  and  poets,  whose 
works  and  words  have  made  the  renown  of 
the  place.  First  the  Puritan  chiefs  of  Massa- 
chusetts ;  then  the  early  scholars  of  the  budding 
commonwealth  ;  then  the  Tory  gentry  who 
made  the  town  in  the  days  before  the  Revolu- 
tion the  centre  of  a  lavish  hospitality,  and  who 
maintained  a  happy  social  life  of  which  the 
memories  still  linger  in  the  beautiful  homes 
which  they  left  behind  them  ;  then  the  patriot 


s""aj»* 


214  Cambridge 

army  suroring  about  Boston  in  the  exciting 
year  of  the  siege,  with  the  inspiring  traditions 
of  what  Washington  and  Warren  and  Knox 
and  Greene  and  the  rest  did  and  said ;  and 
finally  the  later  associations  of  our  great 
scholars  and  men  of  letters,  chief  of  whom  we 
rank  Lowell  and  Holmes  and  Longfellow, 
whose  lives  were  rooted  deep  in  the  Cambridge 
soil  and  whose  dust  there  endears  the  sod. 

The  first  figures  on  our  Cambridge  stage 
are  those  of  the  leaders  of  the  Massachusetts 
colony.  While  Boston  was  clearly  marked 
for  prominence  in  the  colony  because  of  its 
geographical  position,  there  was  not  at  first 
the  intention  to  make  it  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment. It  was  too  open  to  attack  from  the  sea  ; 
a  position  farther  inland  could  be  more  easily 
defended,  not  indeed  from  the  Indians,  but 
from  the  enemy  most  to  be  dreaded, — the  war- 
ships of  an  irate  and  hostile  motherland.  Ac- 
cordingly Governor  John  Winthrop  and  his 
assistants,  shortly  after  the  planting  of  Boston, 
journeyed  in  the  shallop  of  the  ship  in  which 
they  had  come  from  England,  four  miles  up 
the  Charles  River  behind  Boston  until  they 
came  to  a  meadow  gently  sloping  to  the  river- 
side,   backed  by   rounded  hills   and   protected 


Cambridge 


215 


by  wide-spreading  salt  marshes.     There  on  the 
28th  of  December,  1630,  they  landed  and  fixed 


HOME  OF  LONGFELLOW. 

the  seat  of  their  government.      To  quote  the 
old  chronicle  : 

"  They  rather  made  choice  to  enter  further  among  the 
Indians  than  to  hazard  the  fury  of  malignant  advers- 
aries who  might  {)ursue  them,  and  therefore  chose  a 
place  situated  upon  Charles  River,  between  Charles- 
town  and  Watertown,  where  they  erected  a  towne  called 
Newtowne,  and  where  they  gathered  the  8th  Church  of 
Christ." 


2i6  Cambridge 

It  was  agreed  that  the  Governor,  John  Win- 
throp,  the  Deputy  Governor,  Thomas  Dudley, 
and  all  the  councillors,  except  John  Endicott, 
who  had  already  settled  at  Salem,  should  build 
and  occupy  houses  at  Newtowne,  but  this 
agreement  was  never  carried  out.  Winthrop, 
Dudley  and  Bradstreet  built  houses,  and  the 
General  Court  of  the  colony  met  alternately 
at  Newtowne  and  at  Boston  until  1638,  when 
it  finally  settled  in  Boston.  Yet  in  spite  of 
the  superior  advantages  of  Boston  the  new 
settlement  evidently  flourished,  for  in  1633  a 
traveller — the  writer  of  New  E7iglaiid' s  Pros- 
pect— describes  the  village  as  "  one  of  the 
neatest  and  best  compacted  towns  in  New 
England,  having  many  fair  structures,  with 
many  handsome  contrived  streets.  The  in- 
habitants, most  of  them,  are  rich  and  well 
stored  with  cattle  of  all  sorts." 

This  is  doubtless  an  extravagant  picture  and 
true  only  in  comparison  with  some  of  the 
neighboring  plantations  which  were  not  so  fa- 
vorably situated.  Newtowne  was  really  a  crude 
and  straggling  settlement  made  up  of  some 
sixty  or  seventy  log  cabins  or  poor  frame 
houses  stretching  along  a  road  which  skirted 
the  river  marshes  and  of  which  the  wanderings 


Cambridge  217 

were  prescribed  more  by  the  devious  channel 
of  the  Charles  than  by  mathematical  exactness. 
The  meeting-house,  built  of  rough-hewn  boards 
with  the  crevices  sealed  with  mud,  stood  at 
the  crossing  of  the  road  with  the  path  that  led 
down  to  the  river,  where  there  was  a  ladder  for 
the  convenience  of  landing.  So  primitive  was 
the  place  that  Thomas  Dudley,  the  chief  man 
of  the  town,  writing  home,  could  say,  "  I 
have  no  table  nor  any  place  to  write  in  than 
by  the  fireside  on  my  knee."  Such  was  the 
splendor  of  the  whilom  capital  of  New  Eng- 
land. 

Like  most  of  the  Massachusetts  towns,  Cam- 
bridge began  as  a  church.  Though  Dudley 
and  Bradstreet  and  Haynes  were  high  in 
the  councils  of  the  infant  commonwealth,  hold- 
ing successively  or  simultaneously  the  offices 
of  governor  and  military  chief,  yet  the  lead- 
ing personality  of  the  village  was  the  minister. 
The  roll  of  Cambridge  ministers  begins  with 
the  great  name  of  Thomas  Hooker,  the  founder 
of  Connecticut,  and  the  man  who  first  visioned 
and  did  much  to  make  possible  our  American 
democracy.  Hooker,  with  his  congregation 
from  Braintree,  in  Essex,  England,  came  to 
Massachusetts  in   1632,  and  after  a  short  stay 


2i8  Cambridge 

at  Mount  Wollaston,  settled  at  Newtowne, 
raising  the  population  to  nearly  five  hundred 
souls.  But  the  stay  of  the  Braintree  church 
was  short.  Some  adventurous  spirits  had 
penetrated  the  wilderness  of  the  interior  until 
they  discovered  the  charm  and  fertility  of  the 
valley  of  the  Connecticut,  and  soon  Hooker 
and  his  company  were  impelled  by  "  the  strong 
bent  of  their  spirits  "  to  remove  thither.  They 
alleged,  in  petitioning  the  General  Court  for 
permission  to  remove,  that  their  cattle  were 
cramped  for  room  in  Newtowne,  and  that  it 
behooved  the  English  colonists  to  keep  the 
Dutch  out  of  Connecticut ;  but  the  real  motive 
of  the  exodus  was  doubtless  ecclesiastical. 
Hooker  did  not  find  himself  altogether  in  ac- 
cord with  the  Boston  teacher,  John  Cotton. 
"Two  such  eminent  stars,"  says  Hubbard, 
writing  in  1682,  "both  of  the  first  magnitude, 
though  of  different  influence,  could  not  well 
continue  in  one  and  the  same  orb."  Hooker 
took  the  more  liberal  side  in  the  antinomian 
controversy  which  had  already  begun  to  make 
trouble,  and  his  subsequent  conduct  of  affairs 
in  Connecticut  shows  that  he  did  not  approve 
the  Massachusetts  policy  of  restricting  the  suf- 
frage to  church  members.       In   the  spring  of 


Cambridge  219 

1636,  therefore,  Hooker  and  most  of  his  con- 
gregation sold  their  possessions,  and  driving 
one  hundred  and  sixty  cattle  before  them,  went 
on  their  way  to  the  planting  of  Hartford  and 
the  founding  of  a  new  commonwealth. 

This  was  the  first  of  many  separations  by 
which  Cambridge  has  become  the  mother  of 
many  sturdy  children.  The  original  bound- 
aries of  the  town  stretched  from  Dedham  on 
the  south  all  the  way  to  the  Merrimac  River 
on  the  north.  Gradually,  by  the  gathering  of 
new  churches  and  peaceable  partition,  this  ter- 
ritory has  been  divided,  and  out  of  the  original 
Newtowne  have  been  formed,  besides  the 
present  Cambridge,  Billerica,  Bedford,  Lexing- 
ton, Arlington,  Brighton  and  Newton.  Gov- 
ernors Dudley  and  Bradstreet  removed  to 
Ipswich,  and  Simon  Willard  went  to  be  the 
chief  layman  of  Concord  and  a  famous  builder 
and  defender  of  towns. 

The  rude  houses  of  Hooker's  congregation 
were  bought  by  a  newly  arrived  company,  the 
flock  of  the  Rev.  Thomas  Shepard.  This 
firm  but  gentle  leader,  who  left  a  deep  impress 
on  the  habit  of  the  town,  was  a  youth  of 
thirty-one,  and  a  graduate,  like  many  of  the 
Massachusetts  leaders,  of  Emanuel  College,  at 


220  Cambridge 

Cambridge.  He  came  to  New  England  with 
a  company  of  earnest  followers,  actuated,  as  he 
wrote,  by  desire  for  "the  fruition  of  God's  or- 
dinances. Though  my  motives  were  mixed, 
and  I  looked  much  to  my  own  quiet,  yet  the 
Lord  let  me  see  the  glory  of  liberty  in  New 
England,  and  made  me  purpose  to  live  among 
God's  people  as  one  come  from  the  dead  to 
His  praise."  His  brave  young  wife  died  "  in 
unspeakable  joy"  only  a  fortnight  after  his 
settlement  at  Cambridge,  and  was  soon  fol- 
lowed by  the  chief  man  of  his  flock  and  his 
closest  friend,  Roger  Harlakenden,  another 
godly  youth  of  the  manly  type  of  English  pio- 
neers. At  once,  too,  Shepard  was  plunged  into 
the  stormy  debates  of  the  antinomian  contro- 
versy which  nearly  caused  a  permanent  divi- 
sion in  the  Congregational  churches.  The 
general  election  of  1637,  which  was  held  on 
the  Common  at  Newtowne,  was  a  tumultuous 
gathering,  and  discussion  over  the  merits  of 
"grace"  and  "works"  ran  high  till  John  Wil- 
son, minister  of  the  Boston  church,  climbed  up 
into  a  big  oak  tree,  and  made  a  speech  which 
carried  the  day  for  John  Winthrop  to  the  con- 
fusion of  the  heretical  disciples  of  Anne  Hutch- 
inson.    Through  these  stormy  waters  Shepard 


222  Cambridge 

steered  his  course  so  discreetly  that  he  came 
into  high  favor  among  all  people  as  a  sound 
and  vigilant  minister,  and  Cotton  Mather  tells 
us  that  "  it  was  with  a  respect  unto  this  vigi- 
lancy  and  the  enlightening  and  powerful  minis 
try  of  Mr.  Shepard,  that,  when  the  foundation 
of  a  college  was  to  be  laid,  Cambridge,  rather 
than  any  other  place,  was  pitched  upon  to  be 
the  seat  of  that  happy  seminary." 

The  founding  of  Harvard  College  by  the 
little  colony  was  surely  one  of  the  most  heroic, 
devout  and  fruitful  events  of  American  his- 
tory. Upon  the  main  entrance  to  the  college 
grounds  is  written  to-day  an  inscription  taken 
from  one  of  the  earliest  chronicles,  entitled 
New  England's  First  Fruits.     We  read  that : 

"  After  God  had  carried  us  safe  to  New  England  and 
wee  had  builded  our  houses  and  provided  necessaries  for 
our  livelihood,  reared  convenient  places  for  God's  wor- 
ship and  settled  the  Civil  Government,  one  of  the  next 
things  we  longed  for  and  looked  after  was  to  advance 
learning  and  perpetuate  it  to  posterity,  dreading  to 
leave  an  illiterate  ministry  to  the  churches  when  our  pre- 
sent ministers  shall  lie  in  the  dust." 

Accordingly,  on  the  28th  day  of  October, 
1636,  Sir  Harry  Vane — Milton's  "  Vane,  young 
in  years,  but  in  sage  counsel  old" — being  the 


Cambridge  223 

Governor,  the  General  Court  of  the  colony 
passed  the  following  memorable  vote  :  "  The 
Court  agrees  to  give  ^400  towards  a  school 
or  college — whereof  ^200  shall  be  paid  the 
next  year  and  ^200  when  the  work  is  fin- 
ished." In  the  following  year  this  vote  was 
supplemented  by  a  further  order  that  the  col- 
lege "  is  ordered  to  be  at  Newtowne,  and  that 
Newtowne  shall  henceforth  be  called  Cam- 
bridge." This  is  the  significant  act  that  marks 
the  distinction  between  the  Puritan  colony 
and  all  pioneer  settlements  based  on  material 
foundations.  For  a  like  spirit  under  like  cir- 
cumstances history  will  be  searched  in  vain. 
Never  were  the  bases  of  such  a  structure  laid 
by  a  community  of  men  so  poor,  and  under 
such  sullen  and  averted  stars.  The  colony  was 
nothing  but  a  handful  of  settlers  barely  cling- 
ing to  the  wind-swept  coast ;  it  was  feeble  and 
insignificant,  in  danger  from  Indians  on  the 
one  hand  and  foreign  foes  on  the  other  ;  it  was 
in  throes  of  dissension  on  the  matter  of  heresy 
which  threatened  to  divide  it  permanently, 
yet  so  resolved  were  the  people  that  "  the 
Commonwealth  be  furnished  with  knowing 
and  understanding  men  and  the  churches  with 
an  able  ministry,"  that  they  voted  the  entire 


2  24  Cambridge 

annual  income  of  the  colony  to  establish  a 
place  of  learning.     Said  Lowell : 

"  This  act  is  second  in  real  import  to  none  that  has 
happened  in  the  Western  hemisphere.  The  material 
growth  of  the  colonies  would  have  brought  about  their 
political  separation  from  the  mother  country  in  the  ful- 
ness of  time,  but  the  founding  of  the  first  college  here 
saved  New  England  from  becoming  a  mere  geographical 
expression.  It  did  more,  it  insured  our  intellectual  in- 
dependence of  the  old  world.  That  independence  has 
been  long  in  coming,  but  the  chief  names  of  those  who 
have  hastened  its  coming  are  written  on  the  roll  of  Har- 
vard College." 

But  even  the  self-sacrificing  zeal  of  the 
colonists  would  have  been  almost  unavailing 
had  it  not  been  for  the  coming  to  Massachu- 
setts at  this  time  of  a  young  Puritan  minister, 
another  graduate  of  Emanuel,  upon  whom 
death  had  already  set  his  seal.  Says  the 
chronicler  : 

"As  we  were  thinking  and  consulting  how  to  effect  this 
great  work,  it  pleased  God  to  stir  up  the  heart  of  one 
Mr.  John  Harvard,  a  godly  gentleman  and  a  lover  of 
learning  then  living  amongst  us,  to  bequeath  the  one 
half  of  his  estate,  in  all  about  ;^  1700,  toward  the  erection 
of  the  college,  and  all  his  library." 

Was  ever  a  gift  so  marvellously  multiplied  as 
the    bequest   of    this  obscure   young  scholar? 


STATUE  OF  JOHN   HARVARD  AND  MEMORIAL  HALL,  HARVARD  COLLEGE. 


225 


224 


Cambridge 


annual  Income  of  the  colony  to  establish  a 
place  of  learning.     Said  Lowell : 

"  This  act  is  second  in  real  import  to  none  that  has 
happened  in  the  Western  hemisphere.  The  material 
growth  of  the  colonies  would  have  brought  about  their 
political  separation  from  the  mother  country  in  the  ful- 
ness of  time,  but  the  founding  of  the  first  college  here 
saved  New  England  from  becoming  a  mere  geographical 
expression.  It  did  more,  it  insured  our  intellectual  in- 
dependence of  the  old  world.  That  independence  has 
been  long  in  coming,  but  the  chief  names  of  those  who 
have  hastened  its  coming  are  written  on  the  roll  of  Har- 
vard College." 

But  even  the  self-sacrificing  zeal  of  the 
colonists  would  have  been  almost  unavailing 
had  it  not  been  for  the  coming  to  Massachu- 
setts at  this  time  of  a  young  Puritan  minister, 
another  graduate  of  Emanuel,  upon  whom 
death  had  already  set  his  seal.  Says  the 
chronicler  : 

"As  we  were  thinking  and  consulting  how  to  effect  this 
great  work,  it  pleased  God  to  stir  up  the  heart  of  one 
Mr.  John  Harvard,  a  godly  gentleman  and  a  lover  of 
learning  then  living  amongst  us,  to  bequeath  the  one 
half  of  his  estate,  in  all  about  ^1700,  toward  the  erection 
of  the  college,  and  all  his  library." 

Was  ever  a  gift  so  marvellously  multiplied  as 
the    bequest   of    this  obscure   young  scholar  ? 


STATUE  OF  JOHN   HARVARD  AND  MEMORIAL  HALL,  HARVARD  COLLEGE. 


225 


2  28  Cambridge 

The  place  is  not  unworthy  of  the  wealth  of 
affection  and  poetic  tribute  that  has  been  lav- 
ished upon  it.  The  old  Puritan  church  records, 
with  their  quaint  entries  about  heresies  and 
witchcraft,  about  ordinations  where  "  four  gal- 
lons of  wine  "  and  bushels  of  wheat  and  malt 
and  hundredweights  of  beef  and  mutton  \vere 
consumed,  and  about  funerals  conducted  with 
solemn  pomp  ;  and  the  town  records  with 
notes  about  the  "  Palisadoe  "  and  the  Common 
rights  and  "the  Cowyard "  and  the  building 
of  "The  Great  Bridge," — a  vast  undertaking, 
— have  more  than  merely  antiquarian  interest, 
for  they  reveal  the  intelligent  and  sturdy  de- 
mocracy and  broad  principles  of  government 
upon  W'hich  the  American  republic  rests. 

But  if  these  ancient  records  seem  uninvitinof, 
let  the  visitor  turn  to  the  annals  of  the  stirring 
time  of  the  Revolution.  General  Gage  called 
Harvard  College  "that  nest  of  sedition."  In 
that  nest  were  hatched  John  Hancock,  James 
Otis,  Samuel  Adams,  John  Adams,  Joseph 
Warren  and  many  another  of  the  patriot 
leaders.  The  town  was  the  abode  of  many 
of  the  leading  Tory  families,  but  as  early  as 
1765  the  town-meeting  voted  "that  (with  all 
humility)   it  is   the   opinion   of  the  town   that 


230  Cambridge 

the  inhabitants  of  this  Province  have  a  legal 
claim  to  all  the  natural,  inherent,  constitutional 
rights  of  Englishmen  and — that  the  Stamp 
Act  is  an  infraction  upon  these  rights."  And 
after  an  argument  on  the  merits  of  the  ques- 
tion it  was  further  ordered  "  that  this  vote  be 
recorded  in  the  Town  Book,  that  the  children 
yet  unborn  may  see  the  desire  their  ancestors 
had  for  their  freedom  and  happiness."  For 
the  next  ten  years  there  is  scarcely  a  proceed- 
ing in  the  preliminary  debates  and  contests 
that  led  up  to  open  revolution  that  is  not  il- 
lustrated in  the  resolutions  recorded  by  the 
Cambridge  town  clerk.  Vote  followed  vote, 
as  the  restrictive  measures  of  Parliament  irri- 
tated the  townsmen,  till  at  the  town-meeting 
of  1773  it  was  resolved  "that  this  town — is 
ready  on  the  shortest  notice,  to  join  with  the 
town  of  Boston  and  other  towns,  in  any  meas- 
ures that  may  be  thought  proper,  to  deliver 
ourselves  and  posterity  from  slavery."  The 
2d  of  September,  1774,  just  escaped  the  his- 
toric importance  of  April  19th  in  the  next 
year.  On  that  day  several  thousand  men 
gathered  on  Cambridge  Common  and  pro- 
ceeded in  orderly  fashion  to  force  the  resigna- 
tion of  two  of  His  Majesty's  privy  councillors, 


Cambridge 


231 


and  then,  marching  up  Brattle  Street  to  the 
house  of  the  Lieutenant-Governor  of  the 
Province,  Thomas  OHver — the  house  that  was 
afterwards  the  home  in  succession  of  Elbridee 


HOME  OF  LOWELL. 


Gerry,  Rev.  Charles  Lowell  and  his  son  James 
Russell  Lowell — they  extorted  from  him,  too, 
a  pledge  to  resign.  "  My  house  in  Cam- 
bridge," he  wrote,  "being  surrounded  by 
about  four  thousand  men,  I  sign  my  name — 


232  Cambridge 

Thomas  Oliver."  Both  the  first  and  second  of 
the  Provincial  Congresses  met  in  Cambridge, 
and  at  last  the  running  battle  of  April  19, 
1775,  swept  through  the  borders  of  the  town. 
Twenty-six  Americans  were  killed  within  the 
boundaries  of  Cambridge,  six  of  them  citizens 
of  the  place,  and  the  American  militia  who 
followed  the  British  retreat  from  Concord  on 
that  momentous  evening  lay  on  their  arms  at 
last  on  Cambridge  Common. 

For  eleven  months  after  Concord  fight,  Cam- 
bridge was  a  fortified  camp.  The  college  build- 
ings, the  Episcopal  church  and  the  larger  houses 
were  occupied  as  barracks.  General  Ward 
established  his  headquarters  in  the  gambrel- 
roofed  house  which  was  afterwards  the  birth- 
place of  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes.  On  the 
lawn  before  the  house,  in  the  hush  of  the  June 
evening,  Prescott's  men  were  drawn  up,  while 
President  Langdon  of  the  college,  in  cap  and 
gown,  prayed  for  the  success  of  their  arms  ere 
they  marched  to  Bunker  Hill.  Two  weeks 
later  Washington  reached  the  camp,  and  on 
July  3d,  under  the  spreading  elm  at  the  west- 
ern end  of  the  Common,  unsheathed  his  sword 
and,  as  the  inscription  reads,  "  took  command 
of  the  American   Army."      Washington   lived 


WASHINGTON   ELM. 


233 


234  Cambridge 

for  a  while  in  the  president's  house,  but  soon 
made  his  headquarters  in  the  fine  old  mansion 
of  the  Vassalls  which  was  later  the  home  of 
Longfellow. 

After  March,  1776,  when  Boston  was  finally 
evacuated  by  the  British,  Cambridge  ceased  to 
be  involved  in  the  military  events  of  the  Rev- 
olution, but  in  1777  the  captured  troops  of 
Burgoyne  were  quartered  in  the  town,  the 
soldiers  swinging  their  hammocks  in  the  col- 
lege buildings  and  the  officers  occupying  the 
deserted  mansions  of  "  Tory  Row."  Burgoyne 
lived  in  the  house  sometimes  called,  in  derision 
of  its  first  clerical  occupant,  "  The  Bishop's 
Palace,"  and  Riedesel  and  his  accomplished 
wife  in  the  Lechmere  house.  "  Never  have  I 
chanced,"  wrote  Madame  Riedesel,  "  upon 
such  a  charming  situation,"  and  never  has  our 
colonial  life  been  more  charmingly  described 
than  by  this  brave  and  vivacious  German  lady 
in  the  letters  written  from  her  pleasant  prison 
to  her  distant  home. 

For  fifty  years  after  the  Revolutionary 
epoch,  Cambridge  w^as  a  country  town  of  quiet 
habits,  its  only  distinguishing  characteristic 
being  the  scholastic  and  literary  atmosphere 
that  hung  about  the  college.      It  was  a  good 


235 


236  Cambridge 

place  to  be  born  in,  and  it  was  surely  good  to 
live  in  the  place  where  Everett  and  Ouincy 
ruled  the  academic  world  ;  where  Longfellow 
wrote  his  poetry,  and  Palfrey  his  history,  and 
Sparks  his  biographies  ;  where  Washington 
Allston  painted  and  Margaret  Fuller  dreamed  ; 
where  William  Story  and  Richard  Dana  and 
Lowell  and  Holmes  and  the  rest  walked  to 
church  and  stopped  to  gossip  with  the  neigh- 
bors at  the  post-office. 

"  No  town  in  this  country,"  says  Thomas  Wentvvorth 
Higginson,  "has  been  the  occasion  of  two  literary  de- 
scriptions more  likely  to  become  classic  than  two  which 
bear  reference  to  the  Cambridge  of  fifty  years  ago.  One 
of  these  is  Lowell's  well-known  Fireside  Travels  and  the 
other  is  the  scarcely  less  racy  chapter  in  the  Harvard 
Book,  contributed  by  John  Holmes,  younger  brother  of 
the  '  Autocrat.'  " 

To  these  happy  descriptions  we  may  now  add 
the  accounts  of  Colonel  Higginson's  boyhood 
in  his  Cheerful  Yesterdays,  and  Dr.  Holmes's 
loving  story  of  his  birthplace  in  the  Poet  at 
the  Breakfast  Table. 

"Cambridge,"  wrote  Lowell,  "  was  still  a  country  village 
with  its  own  habits  and  traditions,  not  yet  feeling  too 
strongly  the  force  of  suburban  gravitation.  Approaching 
it  from  the  west,  by  what  was  then  called  the  New 
Road,  you  would  pause  on  the  brow  of  Symond's  Hill  to 


238  Cambridge 

enjoy  a  view  singularly  soothing  and  placid.  In  front 
of  you  lay  the  town,  tufted  with  elms,  lindens,  and  horse- 
chestnuts,  which  had  seen  Massachusetts  a  colony,  and 
were  fortunately  unable  to  emigrate  with  the  Tories,  by 
whom,  or  by  whose  fathers,  they  were  planted.  Over  it 
rose  the  noisy  belfry  of  the  College,  the  square,  brown 
tower  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  the  slim,  yellow  spire 
of  the  parish  meeting-house.  On  your  right  the  Charles 
slipped  smoothly  through  green  and  purple  salt  meadows, 
darkened  here  and  there  with  the  blossoming  black  grass 
as  with  a  stranded  cloud-shadow.  To  your  left  upon  the 
Old  Road  you  saw  some  half-dozen  dignified  old  houses 
of  the  colonial  time,  all  comfortably  fronting  southward. 
.  .  .  We  called  it  '  the  Village  '  then,  and  it  was 
essentially  an  English  village — quiet,  unspeculative, 
without  enterprise,  sufficing  to  itself,  and  only  showing 
such  differences  from  the  original  type  as  the  public 
school  and  the  system  of  town  government  might  su- 
perinduce. A  few  houses,  chiefly  old,  stood  around  the 
bare  common,  with  ample  elbow-room,  and  old  women, 
capped  and  spectacled,  still  peered  through  the  same 
windows  from  which  they  had  watched  Lord  Percy's 
artillery  rumble  by  to  Lexington,  or  caught  a  glimpse  of 
the  handsome  Virginia  general  who  had  come  to  wield 
our  homespun  Saxon  chivalry.  The  hooks  were  to  be 
seen  from  which  had  swung  the  hammocks  of  Burgoyne's 
captive  red-coats.  If  memory  does  not  deceive  me, 
women  still  washed  clothes  in  the  town  spring,  clear  as 
that  of  Bandusia.  One  coach  sufficed  for  all  the  travel 
to  the  metropolis." 

Cambridge  is  no  longer  the  idyllic  village  of 


Cambridge  239 

Lowell's  boyhood,  but  a  great  suburban  city 
bustling  with  many  activities.  So  rapid  has 
been  the  growth  that  Lowell  on  his  return 
from  Europe  in  1889  wrote: 

"  I  feel  somehow  as  if  Charon  had  ferried  me  the  wrong 
way,  and  yet  it  is  into  a  world  of  ghosts  that  he  has 
brought  me.  I  hardly  know  the  old  road,  a  street  now, 
that  I  have  paced  so  many  years,  for  the  new  houses. 
My  old  homestead  seems  to  have  a  puzzled  look  in  its 
eyes  as  it  looks  down — a  trifle  superciliously  methinks — 
on  these  upstarts. 

"  The  old  English  elms  in  front  of  my  house  have  n't 
changed.  A  trifle  thicker  in  the  waist,  perhaps,  as  is 
the  wont  of  prosperous  elders,  but  looking  just  as  I  first 
saw  them  seventy  years  ago,  and  it  is  balm  to  my  eyes. 
I  am  by  no  means  sure  that  it  is  wise  to  love  the  ac- 
customed and  familiar  as  much  as  I  do,  but  it  is  pleasant 
and  gives  a  unity  to  life  which  trying  can't  accomplish." 

Cambridge  is  to-day  the  abode  of  as  happy, 
comfortable  and  progressive  a  people  as  the 
world  contains.  It  presents  a  unique  example 
in  this  country  of  a  city  thoroughly  well  gov- 
erned. It  is  now  a  quarter-century  since  parti- 
sanship has  been  tolerated  in  city  affairs.  In 
the  City  Hall,  erected  under  the  administration 
of  Mayor  William  E.  Russell,  who  here  got 
his  training  for  the  splendid  service  he  after- 
ward rendered  to  the  State,  and  might,  had  his 


240 


Cambridge 


life  been  spared,  have  rendered  to  the  nation, 
no  hquor  Hcense  has  ever  been  signed.  So 
excellent  has  been  the  record  of  successive  non- 
partisan administrations  in  the  city  that  the 
very  phrase,  "The  Cambridge  Idea,"  has  be- 
come well  known 
even  outside  the 
limits  of  Massa- 
chusetts as  signify- 
ing the  conception 
of  public  office  as 
a  public  trust  and 
the  conduct  of 
municipal  affairs 
on  purely  business 
principles.  Yet  in 
^  V  spite   of   its   muni- 

cipal expansion 
and  business  enter- 
prises, Cambridge 
is  still  pre-eminently  the  place  where  the  lamp  of 
learning  is  kept  lighted.  Though  the  college 
waxes  great  in  numbers  and  its  buildings  mul- 
tiply, and  the  jar  of  business  invades  the  aca- 
demic quiet,  yet  the  purposes  and  habits  of  the 
scholar's  life  still  distinguish  the  community. 
It  is  said  that  when  Cambridge  people  are  at  a 


WILLIAM   E.   RUSSELL. 


Cambridge  241 

loss  for  conversation  one  asks  the  other,  "  How 
is  your  new  book  coming  on  ?  "  and  the  ques- 
tion rarely  fails  to  bring  a  voluble  reply.  There 
is  an  entire  alcove  in  the  City  Library  devoted 
to  the  works  of  Cambridge  writers.  "  Briga- 
dier-Generals," said  Howells,  himself  once  a 
resident  of  the  town,  "were  no  more  common 
in  Washington  during  the  Civil  War  than  au- 
thors in  Cambridge."  It  is  an  interesting  illus- 
tration of  the  persistence  of  good  tradition  that 
the  place  where  was  established  the  first  print- 
ing-press in  America,  set  up  by  Stephen  Daye 
in  1639,  should  still  be  a  centre  of  book-pro- 
duction. Not  only  do  John  Fiske  and  Charles 
Eliot  Norton  and  Thomas  Wentworth  Higgin- 
son  and  a  score  of  others  maintain  the  literary 
reputation  of  the  place,  but  the  great  establish- 
ments of  the  Riverside  Press,  the  University 
Press  and  the  Athenaeum  Press  put  forth  a 
constant  stream  of  high-standard  publications, 
and  send  a  most  characteristic  Cambridge  pro- 
duct all  over  the  world.  Still  Is  Cambridge 
one  of  the  shrines  of  pilgrimage.  The  anti- 
quarians ponder  over  the  mossy  gravestones  In 
the  little  "  God's  Acre  "  between  the  "  Sentinel 
and  Nun,"  as  Dr.  Holmes  called  the  two  church 
towers  which  front  the  colleo^e  gate,  and  there 


242  Cambridge 

they  read  the  long  Inscriptions  that  tell  the 
virtues  of  the  first  ministers  of  the  parish  and 
the  early  presidents  of  the  college.  The 
patriots  come  and  standunder  the  Washington 
elm,  or  linger  by  the  gates  of  the  Craigie 
house  or  Elmwood,  or  pace  the  noble  Me- 
morial Hall,  which  declares  how  Harvard's  sons 
died  for  their  country,  while  visitors  flock  to 
the  great  museum  which  the  genius  and  en- 
ergy of  Louis  Agassiz  upbuilt,  and  to  the  gar- 
den where  Asa  Gray  taught  and  botanized. 
Thousands  of  men  all  over  the  country  think 
of  Cambridge  with  grateful  love  as  they  re- 
member the  years  of  their  happy  youth  ;  and 
the  citizens  of  the  place,  while  they  look  back- 
ward with  just  pride,  look  forward  with  con- 
fidence that  there  is  to  be  more  of  inspiring 
history  and  true  poetry  in  the  city's  future  than 
in  its  fortunate  past. 


CONCORD 

FIRST  IN  MANY  FIELDS 

By  frank  B.  SANBORN 

OLD  this  New  World  is, — geologically 
more  ancient,  perhaps,  than  that  hemi- 
sphere from  whose  western  edge  Columbus  set 
sail,  four  centuries  ago,  and  found  our  conti- 
nent lying  across  his  way,  as  he  plodded  to 
Cathay.  Yet,  uncounted  as  our  barbarous  cent- 
uries and  antediluvian  seons  are,  real  history 
begins  only  with  the  opening  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  when  the  English  Puritan  and  the 
French  Jesuit  transferred  to  these  shores  the 
unfolding  civilization  and  the  rival  religions 
of  Western  Europe.  When  we  see  at  Ply- 
mouth the  wooded  glacial  hillsides,  under  which 
the  Pilgrims  landed  and  established  democracy 
in  their  wilderness,  we  may  remember  that 
their  venture,  though  bolder,  because  earlier, 
than  that  of  Bulkeley  and  Willard,  who  planted 

243 


244  Concord 

the  Concord  colony,  was  yet  but  fifteen  years 
in  advance,  and  was  made  beside  a  friendly 
ocean,  bearing  succor  and  trade,  and  feeding 
them  from  its  abundance.  But  the  Concord 
colonists  sat  down  in  the  gloomy  shadow  of 
the  forest,  amid  trails  of  the  savage  and  the 
wolf.  Still  more  heroic  was  the  crusade  of  the 
Jesuit  in  New  France  ;  but  while  romance  and 
martyrdom  were  his  lot,  our  Puritans  planted 
here  the  germs  of  a  grand  republic. 

"  God  said,  '  I  am  tired  of  kings, 

I  suffer  them  no  more  ; 
Up  to  my  ear  the  morning  brings 

The  outrage  of  the  poor. 
I  will  divide  my  goods, 

Call  in  the  wretch  and  slave  ; 
None  shall  rule  but  the  humble. 

And  none  but  Toil  shall  have.'  " 

The  first  event  in  the  history  of  Massachu- 
setts was  this  planting  of  a  territorial  demo- 
cracy. The  colony  of  Concord  was  granted  by 
Winthrop  and  his  legislature  in  September, 
1635,  to  Peter  Bulkeley,  a  Puritan  minister, 
from  the  little  parish  of  Odell  or  Woodhill 
(colloquially  called  "  Wuddle")  in  English  Bed- 
fordshire, and  to  Simon  Willard,  a  merchant, 
from  Hawkshurst  in  Kent.     Twelve  other  fam- 


246  Concord 

ilies  were  joined  with  them  in  the  grant,  and 
another  minister,  Rev.  John  Jones,  brought 
other  famihes  from  England,  aiming  towards 
Concord,  in  October,  1635,  The  situation 
was  doubtless  chosen  by  Major  Willard,  an 
Indian  trader  and  in  after  years  a  fighter  of 
the  Indians  ;  who  also  selected  and  partly  colo- 
nized two  other  towns,  farther  in  the  wilder- 
ness,— Groton  and  Lancaster.  But  the  true 
father  of  this  Concord,  and  probably  the  giver 
of  its  name  (altering  it  from  the  Indian  Mus- 
ketaquit),  was  Rev.  Peter  Bulkeley,  ancestor  of 
its  most  celebrated  citizen,  Waldo  Emerson. 
Of  this  worthy,  whose  grave,  like  that  of  Moses, 
is  unknown  to  this  day,  something  should  be 
said,  before  we  come  to  later  heroes.  Peter 
Bulkeley  was  the  son  of  Rev.  Edward  Bulke- 
ley, a  doctor  of  divinity  in  English  Cam- 
bridge,— a  scholar  and  man  of  wealth,  who 
was  rector  of  the  Bedfordshire  parish  just 
named,  where  his  son  was  born  in  1583.  He 
succeeded  his  father  there  in  1620. 

It  is  in  the  country  of  John  Bunyan  and 
Cowper  the  poet,  this  little  parish  of  Odell. 
Like  Concord  River,  the  Ouse,  on  which  it 
stands,  is  unmatched  for  winding,  even  in 
England.      Below  the  old  castle  of  Odell,  and 


Concord  247 

the  church,  still  standing,  where  the  Bulkeleys 
preached,  runs  this  crooked  stream,  murmuring 
as  it  meanders  through  its  fringe  of  meadow- 
land,  green  as  the  richest  strip  of  English 
pasture  can  be,  which  lies  between  such  a 
river  and  the  low  hills  that  come  down  towards 
its  edge.  This  Ouse  (there  is  another  in  York- 
shire) flows  from  Bucks,  the  county  of  John 
Hampden,  through  Bedford,  the  county  of 
the  Russells,  and  Huntingdon,  where  Crom- 
well lived,  and  finally  into  the  North  Sea 
at  Lynn.  On  the  north  bank  lies  the  hill 
upon  which  Odell  stands, — the  highway  from 
Sharnbrook  to  Harrold  and  Olney  (long 
the  home  of  Cowper)  running  from  east  to 
west  along  the  breast  of  the  hill.  The  old 
church  standing  amid  trees — conspicuous  is  a 
chestnut  of  surpassing  size  and  beauty — is 
directly  opposite  the  ancient  castle,  now  a 
comfortable  and  handsome  mansion,  built  some 
two  hundred  years  ago, — or  about  the  time  the 
oldest  houses  in  Concord  were  built. 

It  was  no  love  of  adventure,  we  may  be  sure, 
that  brought  Peter  Bulkeley,  at  the  age  of  fifty- 
two,  from  this  lovely  country  into  a  land  of 
forests  and  of  poverty  ;  but  a  desire  to  escape 
the  ecclesiastical  tyranny  of  Laud  and  his  bish- 


248  Concord 

ops,  and  to  establish  a  true  church  in  the  wil- 
derness. Some  difficulties  attended  even  this, 
for  when,  in  July,  1636,  Mr.  Bulkeley  w^as 
about  to  organize  his  church  at  Cambridge,  in 
order  to  have  Sir  Henry  Vane  and  John  Win- 
throp  (Governor  and  Deputy  Governor  that 
year)  present  at  the  ceremony,  lo  and  behold  ! 
these  great  men  "  took  it  in  ill  part,  and 
thought  not  fit  to  go,  because  they  had  not 
come  to  them  before,  as  they  ought  to  have 
done,  and  as  others  had  done  before  them,  to 
acquaint  them  with  their  purpose."  Again,  in 
April,  1637,  when  Mr.  Bulkeley  was  to  be  or- 
dained (also  in  Cambridge),  Winthrop  says 
that  Vane  and  John  Cotton  and  John  Wheel- 
wright, and  the  two  ruling  elders  of  Boston 
"  and  the  rest  of  that  church  which  were  of 
any  note,  did  none  of  them  come  to  this  meet- 
ing." "  The  reason  was  conceived  to  be,"  adds 
Winthrop,  "  because  they  counted  the  Concord 
ministers  as /<f^^/ preachers," — that  is,  believers 
in  a  covenant  of  works  (of  the  Law)  instead 
of  a  covenant  of  grace.  This  was  the  issue 
upon  which  Wheelwright  and  Mrs.  Hutchinson 
were  banished,  soon  after. 

Indeed,  the  ordination  of  Mr.  Bulkeley  took 
place  in  the  very  height  of  that  fierce  contro- 


Concord  249 

versy  between  John  Cotton  and  his  former  sup- 
porters, Wheelwright  and  Vane,  which  came 
near  breaking  up  the  Httle  colony  ;  and  the  Con- 
cord minister  was  one  of  the  synod  which,  the 
next  August,  or  perhaps  later,  specified  some 
eighty  doctrinal  opinions  as  erroneous  or  hereti- 
cal,— about  one  error  for  every  two  white  per- 
sons in  Concord.  The  covenant  of  the  village 
church,  however,  breathes  a  more  liberal  spirit ; 
for  in  it  we  find  these  words,  evidently  from 
the  hand  of  Bulkeley  : 

"Whereas  the  Lord  hath  of  His  great  goodness 
brought  us  from  under  the  yoke  and  burdening  of  men's 
traditions,  to  the  precious  liberty  of  His  ordinances, 
which  we  now  do  enjoy, — we  will,  according  to  our 
places  and  callings,  stand  for  the  maintenance  of  this 
liberty,  to  our  utmost  endeavor,  and  not  return  to  any 
human  ordinances  from  which  we  have  escaped." 

And  the  spirit  of  his  oft-quoted  sermon  is  also 
a  witness  to  his  true  piety,  whatever  his  doc- 
trinal narrowness  : 

"  There  is  no  people  but  will  strive  to  excel  in  some- 
thing ;  what  can  we  (in  Concord)  excel  in,  if  not  in  holi- 
ness ?  If  we  look  to  number,  we  are  the  fewest  ;  if  to 
strength,  we  are  the  weakest  ;  if  to  wealth  and  riches,  we 
are  the  poorest  of  all  the  people  of  God  through  the 
whole  world.  We  cannot  excel  nor  so  much  as  equal 
other  people  in  these  things  ;  and  if  we  come  short  in 


250  Concord 

grace  and  holiness  too,  we  are  the  most  despicable  peo- 
ple under  Heaven." 

Let  us  hope  that  the  wish  of  the  good  pastor 
was  granted,  and  that  he  lived  to  see  the  fruit 
of  his  labors.  Yet  there  is  a  letter  of  his,  writ- 
ten in  1650  to  John  Cotton,  in  which  Bulkeley 
seems  to  regret  the  democratic  liberty  which 
Emerson,  his  descendant,  never  ceased  to  ap- 
prove.    The  Concord  minister  writes  : 

"  The  Lord  hath  a  number  of  holy  and  humble  ones 
here  amongst  us,  for  whose  sakes  He  doth  spare,  and  will 
spare  long  ;  but,  were  it  not  for  such  a  remnant,  we 
should  see  the  Lord  would  make  quick  work  amongst 
us.  Shall  I  tell  you  what  I  think  to  be  the  ground  of 
all  this  insolency  which  discovers  itself  in  the  speech  of 
men  ?  Truly,  I  cannot  ascribe  it  so  much  to  any  out- 
ward thing,  as  to  the  putting  of  too  much  liberty  and 
power  into  the  hands  of  the  multitude,  which  they  are 
too  weak  to  manage  ;  many  growing  conceited,  proud, 
arrogant,  self-sufficient.  .  .  .  Remember  the  former 
days  which  you  had  in  old  Boston  ;  yet  the  number  of 
professors  is  far  more  here  than  there.  But  tell  me, 
which  place  was  better  governed  ?  When  matters  were 
swayed  there  by  your  wisdom  and  counsel,  they  went  on 
with  strength  and  power  for  good.  But  here,  where  the 
heady  or  headless  multitude  have  gotten  the  power  into 
their  hands,  there  is  insolency  and  confusion  ;  and  I 
know  not  how  it  can  be  avoided,  unless  we  should  make 
the  doors  of  the  church  narrower." 


Concord  251 

This  was  the  caution  and  reversion  of  age, 
— for  the  doubting  Peter  was  then  sixty-seven. 
But  Emerson,  at  the  age  of  sixty,  could  say, 
with  unabated  faith  in  Freedom  : 

Call  the  people  together  ! 

The  young  men  and  the  sires, 
The  digger  in  the  harvest  field, 

Hireling  and  him  that  hires  ; 
Lo  now,  if  these  poor  men 

Can  govern  the  land  and  sea, 
And  make  just  laws  below  the  sun. 

As  planets  faithful  be." 

The  experience  of  the  ages  has  shown  that 
the  Puritans  were  right  in  making  the  doors 
of  the  church  wider,  not  narrower ;  though  we 
still  hear  the  complaint  of  aged  men,  or  young 
men  born  with  a  call  to  be  old,  that  the  former 
times  were  better  than  ours,  and  the  "head- 
less multitude  "  must  be  deprived  of  a  voice  in 
their  own  destiny. 

When  Emerson  in  1835,  at  the  two  hun- 
dredth anniversary  of  Concord,  proposed  to  re- 
quite England's  gift  of  her  printed  Doomsday 
Book  by  presenting  her  and  the  other  Euro- 
pean nations  with  our  yet  unpublished  town  re- 
cords, he  said  :  "  Tell  them  the  Union  has  24 
States,  and  Massachusetts  is  one  ;  that  in  Mas- 
sachusetts are  300  towns,  and  Concord  is  one  ; 


252 


Concord 


that    in   Conc{n*d  are   500   rateable  polls,    and 
every  one  has    an   equal  vote."     To-day   there 


R.  W.  EMERSON  (1858). 
FROM    A    SKETCH    BY    R0W8E. 


are  45  States;  Massachusetts  has  322  towns, 
besides  nearly  30  cities  ;  and  instead  of  500 
ratable  polls,  Concord  has  now  1200;  but 
each  one  still  has  an  equal  vote. 


Concord  253 

Men  are  carried  along,  in  spite  of  them- 
selves, by  the  doctrine  or  system  which  they 
embrace  ;  their  life  principle,  once  adopted, 
has  more  force  than  their  temporary  wish  or 
will.  So  Calvinism,  of  which  Peter  Bulkeley 
was  a  fervent  disciple,  with  its  constant  stress 
laid  on  the  worth  of  the  individual  man,  led 
inevitably  to  democracy,  no  matter  how  much 
the  innate  aristocratic  feeling  of  the  English 
gentleman — the  class  to  which  Bulkeley  be- 
longed— might  revolt  thereat.  It  was  the 
same  in  both  countries,  the  mother  and  the 
daughter ;  Old  England  and  New  England 
found  John  Calvin  leading  them  along  towards 
the  Commonwealth  of  equal  rights  and  abol- 
ished privileges, — towards  Sidney  and  Locke, 
Franklin  and  Jefferson,  Lincoln  and  Gladstone. 

This,  then,  is  the  first  historic  lesson  of  Con- 
cord, as  of  all  New  England, — Democracy 
through  Calvinism,  in  spite  of  recalcitrant 
gentry  and  reactionary  ministers.  Philan- 
thropy, too,  that  modern  invention,  which 
may  almost  be  said  to  have  come  in  with  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  to  have  had  Franklin 
for  its  first  missionary,  began  to  show  itself  in 
our  meadowy  town,  whose  very  name  pre- 
figured it.     The  epitaph  of  Rev.  John  Whit- 


254  Concord 

ing,  parish  minister  here  for  twenty-six  years 
(dying  in  1752),  records  that  he  was  "a  gen- 
tleman of  singular  hospitality  and  generosity, 
who  never  detracted  from  the  character  of  any 
man,  and  was  a  universal  lover  of  mankmd" 
This  would  have  been  no  compliment  in  Bulke- 
ley's  time,  when  the  saints  were  entitled  to  be 
loved,  and  sinners  were  excluded ;  but  the 
eighteenth  century  set  up  a  higher  standard, 
which  has  been  maintained  till  now,  when  the 
votaries  of  evolution  and  the  survival  of  the 
fittest  are  teaching  a  return  to  the  old  doctrine, 
— only  reversing  it ;  for  now  it  is  the  sinners 
whom  we  are  expected  to  admire,  and  to  hate 
the  saints. 

The  second  historic  lesson  of  Concord  is 
like  unto  the  first, — but  more  startling  and 
brilliant.  It  was  the  lesson  of  Revolution, 
which  has  been  thoroughly  learned  since  1775. 
The  embattled  farmers  who,  at  yonder  bridge, 

"  Fired  the  shot  heard  round  the  world," 

were  conservative  revolutionists,  and  as  far 
from  anarchy  as  from  atheism.  In  the  instruc- 
tions given  by  this  town  to  its  representative 
in  1774, — or  rather,  in  a  report  made  in  town- 
meeting,  January  20th  of  that  year,  in  view  of 


256  Concord 

the  Boston  Tea-Party, — it  was  declared  as  the 
voice  of  the  town  : 

"  That  we  will,  in  conjunction  with  our  brethren  in 
America,  risk  our  fortunes,  and  even  our  lives,  in  de- 
fence of  his  Majesty  King  George  the  Third,  his  per- 
son, crown,  and  dignity  ;  and  will  also,  with  the  same 
resolution,  as  his  freeborn  subjects  in  this  country,  to 
the  utmost  of  our  power  and  ability,  defend  all  our 
charter-rights,  that  they  may  be  transmitted  inviolate  to 
the  latest  posterity." 

Three  months  after  this,  when  the  Boston 
Port  Bill  was  in  agitation,  and  two  months 
later,  when  it  had  passed  Parliament,  the 
farmers  of  Concord  took  a  bolder  tone, — 
"  conscious,"  as  they  said  in  town-meeting, 
*'  of  no  alternative  between  the  horrors  of 
slavery,  and  the  carnage  and  desolation  of  a 
civil  war,"  except  non-importation  of  British 
goods,  to  which  the  good  citizens  bound  them- 
selves. Still  later,  in  a  county  convention 
which  met  in  Concord,  August  31,  1774,  it 
was  resolved  : 

"That  we  by  no  means  intend  to  withdraw  our  alle- 
giance from  our  gracious  Sovereign  ;  that  when  our  an- 
cestors emigrated  from  Great  Britain,  charters  and 
solemn  stipulations  expressed  the  conditions,  and  what 
particular  rights  they  yielded  ;  what  each  party  had  to 


Concord  257 

do  and  perform,  and  what  each  of  the  contracting  parties 
were  equally  bound  by.  Therefore  a  debtor  may  as 
justly  refuse  to  pay  his  debts,  because  it  is  inexpedient 
for  him,  as  the  Parliament  deprive  us  of  our  charter 
privileges,  because  it  is  inexpedient  to  a  corrupt  admin- 
istration for  us  to  enjoy  them.  .  .  .  And  a  sense  of 
our  duty  as  men,  as  freemen,  as  Christian  freemen, 
united  in  the  firmest  bonds,  obliges  us  to  resolve  that 
every  civil  ofificer  in  this  Province,  now  in  commission, 
and  acting  in  conformity  to  the  late  act  of  Parliament, 
is  not  an  officer  agreeable  to  our  charter — therefore  un- 
constitutional, and  ought  to  be  opposed.  .  .  .  As  we  are 
resolved  never  to  submit  one  iota  to  the  Act,  we  will 
not  submit  to  courts  thus  constituted,  and  acting 
in  conformity  to  said  Act.  ...  In  consequence  of 
this  resolve,  all  business  at  the  Inferior  Court  of  Com- 
mon Pleas,  and  Court  of  General  Sessions  of  the  Peace, 
next  to  be  holden  in  Concord,  must  cease." 

This  was  peaceful  revolution,  proceeding-, 
not  upon  any  vague  notion  of  a  general  "  Social 
Contract,"  but  on  formal  violations  of  a  written 
contract,  the  Colony  Charter,  as  explicitly 
stated.  I  ask  attention  to  this,  because  it  has 
been  a  favorite  fancy  of  some  modern  writers, 
who  praise  the  Puritans  and  disparage  Jeffer- 
son and  Franklin,  that  our  Revolutionary 
fathers  had  gained  through  those  two  latitu- 
dinarians  a  glimpse  of  the  levelling  French 
doctrines,  and  gave  themselves  up  to  be  guided 


258  Concord 

by  Rousseau  and  Voltaire,  in  dereliction  of 
their  Puritan  ancestry.  Precisely  the  opposite 
is  true;  the  French  author  whom  Jefferson 
may  have  had  in  mind,  when  he  was  not  think- 
ing of  Pym  and  Hampden,  Sergeant  Maynard, 
Locke,  and  Algernon  Sidney, — I  mean  Montes- 
quieu,— having  derived  his  theories  more  from 
the  English  constitutionalists  than  they  from 
him.  Probably  not  one  of  the  men  of  Middle- 
sex, who  thus  led  the  way  to  revolution  in 
this  law-abiding  town  of  Concord  (the  seat 
of  county  justice),  ever  heard  of  Rousseau  ;  but 
they  were  lawyers,  deacons,  country  justices 
and  farmers,  accustomed  to  sit  on  juries  ;  and 
they  understood  the  law  of  contract  and  the 
obligations  of  fair  trade  as  well  as  any  English 
lord  could  tell  them. 

They  voted  further,  on  this  eventful  sum- 
mer day,  that  "  a  Provincial  Congress  is  ab- 
solutely necessary,  in  our  present  unhappy 
situation," — and  they  named  October,  and 
Concord,  as  a  suitable  time  and  place  for  its 
assembling.  This  first  Provincial  Congress 
did  meet,  October  7th,  at  Salem,  but  adjourned 
to  Concord  that  day  ;  it  first  met  here,  October 
II,  1774,  and,  finding  the  county  court-house  too 
small  for  its  three  hundred  members  and  clerks, 


Concord  259 

and  the  people  who  gathered  to  support  them, 
it  moved  over  to  the  parish  meeting-house 
(built  in  I  71 2),  and  remained  in  session  there 
five  days,  when  it  removed  to  Cambridge,  for 
the  sake  of  being  nearer  Boston,  then  held  as 
a  garrison  by  British  troops.  The  second  Pro- 
vincial Congress,  of  1775,  also  met  in  Con- 
cord for  four  weeks  of  March  and  April ;  and 
it  had  only  been  adjourned  four  days  when 
the  British  grenadiers  made  their  midnight 
march  from  Boston  to  Lexington,  hoping  to 
catch  there  the  arch-rebels  Hancock  and  Sam 
Adams,  who  had  gone  to  Lexington  as  mem- 
bers of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  (of 
which  Dr.  Warren  was  chairman),  then  the 
executive  of  Massachusetts  under  the  new 
revolutionary  government.  The  Provincial 
Congress,  the  legislature  of  the  Province,  met 
again  for  the  last  time  in  Concord,  April  22, 
1775,  to  consider  the  results  of  the  eventful 
19th.  It  finally  dissolved  May  31st,  after  hear- 
ing a  sermon  from  Dr.  Langdon,  the  Presi- 
dent of  Harvard  College  ;  and  Concord  ceased 
forever  to  be  the  legislative  capital  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, It  became  temporarily,  however, 
the  seat  of  Dr.  Langdon's  College,  which  in 
October,    1775,    began    its    recitations   in   the 


26o  Concord 

court-house  and  meeting-house,  and  so  con- 
tinued till  June,  1776. 

Even  Harvard  College  was  at  that  time 
revolutionary ;  it  gave  up  its  few  buildings  in 
Cambridge  to  the  army  of  Washington,  and 
its  president,  a  cousin  of  the  wealthy  New 
Hampshire  patriot,  John  Langdon,  made  the 
prayer  for  Bunker  Hill  battle,  as  the  troops 
marched  out  of  Cambridge  to  give  a  feeble 
support  to  Prescott  and  his  Middlesex  farmers, 
entrenched  on  the  hill.  Washington  had  not 
yet  reached  Cambridge,  to  take  command ; 
had  his  strategic  eye  taken  in  the  situation 
that  morning,  the  result  at  Bunker  Hill  would 
have  been  different. 

Lexington,  the  town  which  gave  its  name  to 
the  battle  of  April,  1775,  more  decidedly  than 
Concord, — though  both  names  occur  from  the 
first, — was  an  offshoot  from  the  older  towns 
of  Cambridge,  Watertown  and  Woburn,  rather 
than  an  original  church  seat,  and  was  not 
established  as  a  town  until  171 2.  A  range 
of  hills  separates  it  from  the  valley  of  the 
Musketaquit,  and  Paul  Revere,  in  his  night 
ride  of  April  i8th,  celebrated  by  Longfellow, 
could  not  cross  those  hills,  but  left  his  mes- 
sage of  war  to  be  borne  on  to  Concord  vil- 


Concord  261 

lage  by  young  Prescott,  distantly  related  to 
Prescott  of  Bunker  Hill.  But  Lexington, 
though  little  more  than  half  so  populous  as 
Concord  at  that  time,  had  a  warlike  people, 
many  of  them  descended  from  the  fighting 
Monros  of  Scotland,  captured  by  Cromwell, 
and  exiled  for  their  loyalty  to  the  Stuarts.  In 
Lexington  they  again  turned  out  against  the 
house  of  Hanover,  and  they  were  commanded 
that  April  morning  by  the  grandfather  of  Lex- 
ington's most  famous  son,  Theodore  Parker. 
Captain  John  Parker,  though  ill  on  the  19th 
of  April,  did  his  soldier's  duty  from  two  in  the 
morning  till  midnight ;  and  some  of  his  men 
returned  the  British  fire  in  early  morning, 
against  hopeless  odds.  Their  turn  came  in  the 
afternoon,  when  the  retreating  British  were 
only  saved  from  total  defeat  by  the  cannon  of 
Lord  Percy.  Those  first  heroes  of  the  Revo- 
lution, John  Hancock  and  Samuel  Adams,  who 
had  been  at  the  Provincial  Congress  in  Con- 
cord, at  Lexington  were  in  the  early  morning 
in  the  parsonage  of  Rev.  Mr.  Clark,  a  kins- 
man of  Hancock,  and  narrowly  escaped  cap- 
ture by  the  British  soldiers,  who  had  special 
orders  to  seize  them. 

John  Pierpont,  a  poet  whose  Pegasus  balked 


262  Concord 

now  and  then,  in  his  verses  at  Acton,  April  19, 
1 85 1,  anticipated  Longfellow  by  this  Words- 
worthian  version  of  Revere's  ride  to  Lexing- 
ton : 

"  The  foremost,  Paul  Revere, 
At  Warren's  bidding  has  the  gauntlet  run 
Unscathed,  and,  dashing  into  Lexington, 
While  midnight  wraps  him  in  her  mantle  dark, 
Halts  at  the  house  of  Reverend  Mister  Clark." 

As  compared  with  Concord,  though  both 
were  rural  towns,  Lexington  was  then,  and 
long  remained,  more  rustic  than  its  westward 
neighbor ;  with  less  trade,  less  culture  and 
fewer  of  the  tendencies  toward  literature  which 
early  showed  themselves  in  the  parish  of  the 
Bulkeleys  and  Emersons.  When  Theodore 
Parker,  in  his  career  of  scholarship  and  re- 
form, began  to  look  outward  from  his  father's 
Lexington  farm,  it  was  towards  Concord,  as 
well  as  towards  Boston,  that  he  turned  his 
eves  ;  he  taught  a  district  school  in  Concord, 
and  preached  in  its  pulpit  as  a  candidate  to 
stand  beside  Dr.  Ripley,  the  pastor  of  the  Old 
Manse.  In  after  years  he  thus  described  the 
event  which  gave  Lexington  its  chief  title  to 
fame,  before  Parker's  own  birth  there  : 


ifir  '''Pi' 


264  Concord 

"  The  war  of  Revolution  began  at  Lexington,  to  end  at 
Yorktown.  Its  first  battle  was  on  the  Nineteenth  of 
April,  Hancock  and  Adams  lodged  at  Lexington  with 
the  minister.  In  the  raw  morning,  a  little  after  daybreak, 
a  tall  man,  with  a  large  forehead  under  a  three-cornered 
hat,  drew  up  his  company  of  70  men  on  the  Green, — 
farmers  and  mechanics  like  himself  ;  only  one  is  left  now 
(1851),  the  boy  who  played  the  men  to  the  spot.  (It 
was  Jonathan  Harrington  the  fifer.)  They  wheeled  into 
line  to  w^ait  for  the  Regulars.  The  captain  ordered 
every  man  to  load  his  piece  with  powder  and  ball. 
'  Don't  fire,'  were  his  words,  '  unless  fired  upon  ;  but  if 
they  want  a  war,  let  it  begin  here.'  The  Regulars  came 
on.  Some  Americans  offered  to  run  away  from  their 
post.  Captain  Parker  said,  '  I  will  order  the  first  man 
shot  dead  that  leaves  his  place.'  The  English  commander 
cried  out,  '  Disperse,  you  rebels  !  lay  down  your  arms 
and  disperse  !  '  Not  a  man  stirred.  '  Disperse,  you 
damned  rebels  !  '  shouted  he  again.  Not  a  man  stirred. 
He  ordered  the  vanguard  to  fire  ;  they  did  so,  but  over 
the  heads  of  our  fathers.  Then  the  whole  main  body 
levelled  their  pieces,  and  there  was  need  of  ten  new 
graves  in  Lexington.  A  few  Americans  returned  the 
shot.  British  blood  stained  the  early  grass  which  waved 
in  the  wind.  '  Disperse  and  take  care  of  yourselves  ! ' 
was  the  captain's  last  command.  There  lay  the  dead, 
and  there  stood  the  soldiers  ;  there  was  a  battle-field 
between  England  and  America — never  to  be  forgot, 
never  to  be  covered  over.  The  '  Mother-country'  of  the 
morning  was  the  '  enemy  '  at  sunrise.  '  Oh,  what  a  glor- 
ious morning  is  this  ! '  said  Samuel  Adams." 

Seven   men   had   been    killed    on  the   spot, 


Concord  265 

nine  wounded, — a  quarter-part  of  all  who  had 
stood  in  arms  on  the  Green,  under  the  eyes  of 
Hancock  and  Adams. 

One  of  the  Lexington  Munroes,  Ensign 
Robert,  was  the  first  man  killed  by  Pitcairn's 
volley  ;  he  was  sixty-four  years  old,  and  had 
been  color-bearer  in  the  capture  of  Louisburg 
by  assault  in  i  745.  Two  of  his  sons  and  two 
sons-in-law  were  in  his  company  on  Lexington 
Green,  and  eleven  of  the  Munroe  clan  were  in 
arms  that  day.  Captain  Parker  did  not  long 
survive  the  battle,  dying  the  next  September  ; 
but  when  the  Civil  War  came  on,  his  grand- 
son Theodore  had  bequeathed  to  Massachu- 
setts, and  Governer  Andrew  had  placed  in  her 
Senate  Chamber,  beside  the  trophies  sent  by 
Stark  from  Bennington, 

"  two  fire-arms,  formerly  the  property  of  my  honored 
grandfather, — to  wit,  the  large  musket  or  King's  arm, 
which  was  by  him  captured  from  the  British  in  the  bat- 
tle of  Lexington,  and  which  is  the  first  fire-arm  taken 
from  the  enemy  in  the  war  for  Independence  ;  and  also 
the  smaller  musket  used  by  him  in  that  battle." 

Theodore  Parker  had  died  in  May,  i860. 

Pitcairn  and  his  redcoats,  delayed  only  half 
an  hour  by  this  bloody  overture  to  Washing- 
ton's grand  career,  marched  on  towards  Con- 


266 


Concord 


cord,  little  knowing-  what  would  meet  them 
there.  As  they  climbed  the  hills  in  Lexing- 
ton and  Lincoln,  they  could  surmise,  however, 
that  the  country  was  rising,  for  the  church- 
bells  were  ringing  an  alarm  of  fire.      Pierpont, 


MUSKETS  OF  CAPTAIN  JOHN  PARKER. 

at  Acton,  overlookincr  the  neiehborintr  towns 
named  by  him,  gave  the  geography  of  this 
rising  in  spirited  couplets  : 

"  Now  Concord's  bell,  resounding  many  a  mile, 
Is  heard  by  Lincoln,  Lincoln's  b}'  Carlisle, 
Carlisle'sby  Chelmsford, — and  from  Chelmsford's  swell 
Peals  the  loud  clangor  of  th'  alarum  bell, 
Till  it  o'er  Bedford,  Acton,  Westford  s])reads, 
Startling  the  morning  dreamers  from  their  beds." 


Concord  267 

These  are  the  small  towns  lying  along  the 
Concord  and  Merrimac  rivers,  and  their  tribu- 
taries, which  sent  forth  the  minute-men  to  fight 
at  Concord  Bridge. 

Prescott  had  done  his  warnincr  work  well  ; 
and  as  Emerson  said  in  1835  • 

'  In  these  peaceful  fields,  for  the  first  time  since  a  hun- 
dred years  (King  Philip's  War),  the  drum  and  alarm-gun 
were  heard,  and  the  farmers  snatched  down  their  rusty 
firelocks  from  the  kitchen  walls,  to  make  good  the  reso- 
lute words  of  their  town  debates.  These  poor  farmers 
acted  from  the  simplest  instincts  ;  they  did  not  know  it 
was  a  deed  of  fame  they  were  doing." 

It  was  Emerson's  grandfather,  the  town 
minister,  who  met  them  on  Concord  Green, 
before  his  church,  and  who  entered  that  night 
in  his  almanac  the  events  he  had  witnessed,  as 
soon  to  be  quoted. 

By  the  17th  of  June,  Massachusetts  had  an 
army  ;  but  when  the  Concord  farmers  made 
their  appeal  to  arms,  two  months  earlier,  it  was 
the  spontaneous  uprising  of  an  armed  people 
to  maintain  their  own  votes  and  defend  their 
threatened  homes.  This  it  is,  and  not  their 
military  achievement,  striking  as  that  was, 
which  gives  their  town  a  place  in  martial  his- 
tory.     The  unregenerate  imagination  of  man- 


268  Concord 

kind  still  delights,  after  so  many  centuries  of 
barbarous  warfare,  in  the  recital  of  deeds  of 
battle  and  the  conquering  march  of  great  sol- 
diers;  Alexander  and  Caesar — even  Hannibal 
and  Bonaparte — continue  to  receive  admira- 
tion for  their  victories  ;  but  the  purer  fame 
of  Washington  rests  on  the  accomplishment  of 
that  for  which  the  men  of  Middlesex  rushed 
to  arms  on  the  19th  of  April,  1775.  As  Emer- 
son, our  Washington  in  the  field  of  literature, 
said,  "  If  ever  men  in  arms  had  a  spotless 
cause,  they  had." 

"  Behold  our  river  bank. 
Whither  the  angry  farmers  came 
In  sloven  dress  and  broken  rank, — 

Nor  thought  of  fame  : 
Their  deed  of  blood 
All  mankind  praise  ; 
Even  the  serene  Reason  says 
It  was  well  done.'  " 

War  had  been  the  normal  state  of  Europe  ; 
and  from  the  hour  when  Bulkeley  and  Willard 
made  here  their  honest  bargain  with  the  red 
landlords  of  these  game  preserves,  cornfields, 
and  fishing-places,  down  to  the  Franco-German 
campaigns  of  1870, — 235  years, — there  had 
been    scarcely    a    period    of     twenty   peaceful 


THE   MINUTE-MAN. 

FRENCH'S    FIRST    STATUE. 


269 


270  Concord 

years  in  that  hemisphere.  With  us  it  was 
different  ;  but  for  the  strife  between  France 
and  England,  in  which  the  colonies  were 
more  or  less  entangled,  Massachusetts  had 
seen  no  warfare  in  her  borders  for  nearly 
a  century,  when  the  insolence  of  the  mother- 
country  forced  independence  upon  us  against 
our  will.  Yet  the  fight  at  the  North  Bridge 
was  no  impromptu  affair,  as  the  utterances  of 
our  Concord  yeomen  show.  They  had  de- 
clared they  would  fight  for  King  Ceorge  or 
against  him,  as  His  Majesty  might  elect ;  and 
when  he  had  made  his  foolish  choice  they  did 
not  hesitate, — much  as  they  had  reason  to 
dread  the  ordeal  by  combat.  And  here  again 
came  in  the  spirit  of  Calvinism,  rallying  to  the 
Old  Testament,  rather  than  to  the  New  with 
its  gospel  of  peace  and  love, — its  ainnistie  gen- 
^rale,  as  poor  Trilby  says.  The  grandfather 
of  Emerson  (who  was  also  the  great-great- 
great-grandson  of  Peter  Bulkeley)  was  parish 
minister  of  Concord  ;  he  had  been  chaplain  to 
the  Provincial  Congress,  and  he  died  in  Ver- 
mont, as  chaplain  in  the  Revolutionary  army 
of  General  Gates.  Five  weeks  before  the  inva- 
sion of  his  parish  by  the  redcoats,  he  had 
preached  to  the  militia  companies  gathered  in 


Concord  271 

this  town  for  review,  a  famous  sermon  from 
the  text,  "  And  behold,  God  Himself  is  with  us 
for  our  Captain,  and  His  priests  with  sounding 
trumpets  to  cry  alarm  against  you."  He  was  as 
good  as  his  word,  for  he  was  one  of  the  first  to 
take  his  musket  and  join  the  minute-men  in  the 
early  morning  of  the  19th  of  April  ;  and  return- 
ing to  the  Old  Manse  (then  the  new  manse,  for 
it  was  built  for  him  and  his  bride  a  few  years 
earlier)  to  protect  his  family,  he  saw  the  brief 
fight  at  the  bridge  from  his  study  window,  and 
wrote  of  the  day's  doings  this  brief  chronicle 
of  an  eye-witness.  His  grandson  found  it  in  a 
page  or  two  of  his  family  almanac,  where,  at 
the  end  of  April,  he  wrote,  "  This  month  re- 
markable for  the  greatest  events  of  the  present 
age." 

"  This  morning,  between  i  and  2  o'clock,  we  were 
alarmed  by  the  ringing  of  the  bell,  and  upon  examination 
found  that  the  troops,  to  the  number  of  800,  had  stole 
their  march  from  Boston,  in  boats  and  barges,  from  the 
bottom  of  the  Common  over  to  a  point  in  Cambridge, 
near  to  Inman's  Farm,  and  were  at  Lexington  Meeting- 
house, half  an  hour  before  sunrise,  where  they  fired  upon 
a  body  of  our  men,  and  (as  we  afterward  heard)  had  killed 
several.  This  intelligence  was  brought  us  first  by  Dr. 
Samuel  Prescott,  who  narrowly  escaped  the  guard  that 
were  sent  before  on  horses,  purposely  to  prevent  all  posts 


272  Concord 

and  messengers  from  giving  us  timely  information.  He, 
by  the  help  of  a  very  fleet  horse,  crossing  several  walls 
and  fences,  arrived  at  Concord  at  the  time  above  men- 
tioned ;  when  several  posts  were  immediately  despatched, 
that  returning  confirmed  the  account  of  the  regulars'  ar- 
rival at  Lexington,  and  that  they  were  on  their  way  to 
Concord.  Upon  this,  a  number  of  our  minute-men  be- 
longing to  this  town,  and  Acton,  and  Lincoln,  with  sev- 
eral others  that  were  in  readiness,  marched  out  to  meet 
them  ;  while  the  alarm  company  were  preparing  to  receive 
them  in  the  town.  Capt.  Minot,  who  commanded  them, 
thought  it  proper  to  take  possession  of  the  hill  above 
the  Meeting-house,  as  the  most  advantageous  situation. 
No  sooner  had  our  men  gained  it,  than  we  were  met  by 
the  companies  that  were  sent  out  to  meet  the  troops, 
who  informed  us  that  they  were  just  upon  us,  and  that 
we  must  retreat,  as  their  number  was  more  than  treble 
ours.  We  then  retreated  from  the  hill  near  the  Liberty 
Pole,  and  took  a  new  post  back  of  the  town  upon  an  em- 
inence, where  we  formed  into  two  battalions,  and  waited 
the  arrival  of  the  enemy. 

"  Scarcely  had  we  formed,  before  we  saw  the  British 
troops  at  the  distance  of  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  glittering  in 
arms,  advancing  towards  us  with  the  greatest  celerity. 
Some  were  for  making  a  stand,  notwithstanding  the  su- 
periority of  their  number  ;  but  others,  more  prudent, 
thought  best  to  retreat  till  our  strength  should  be  equal 
to  the  enemy's,  by  recruits  from  the  neighboring  towns 
that  were  continually  coming  in  to  our  assistance.  Ac- 
cordingly we  retreated  over  the  bridge  ;  when  the  troops 
came  into  the  town,  set  fire  to  several  carriages  for  the 
artillery,  destroyed  60  bbls.  flour,  rifled   several  houses, 


Concord  273 

took  possession  of  the  Town-house,  destroyed  500  lb.  of 
balls,  set  a  guard  of  100  men  at  the  North  Bridge,  and 
sent  a  party  to  the  house  of  Col.  Barrett,  where  they  were 
in  expectation  of  finding  a  quantity  of  warlike  stores. 
But  these  were  happily  secured  just  before  their  arrival, 
by  transportation  into  the  woods  and  other  by-places. 

"  In  the  meantime  the  guard  set  by  the  enemy  to  secure 
the  pass  at  the  North  Bridge  were  alarmed  by  the  ap- 
proach of  our  people  ;  who  had  retreated  as  before  men- 
tioned, and  were  now  advancing,  with  special  orders  not 
to  fire  upon  the  troops  unless  fired  upon.  These  orders 
were  so  punctually  observed  that  we  received  the  fire  of 
the  enemy  in  three  several  and  separate  discharges  of  their 
pieces,  before  it  was  returned  by  our  commanding  ofifi- 
cer  ;  the  firing  then  became  general  for  several  minutes  ; 
in  which  skirmish  two  were  killed  on  each  side,  and  sev- 
eral of  the  enemy  wounded.  (It  may  here  be  observed 
by  the  way,  that  we  were  the  more  cautious  to  prevent 
beginning  a  rupture  with  the  King's  troops,  as  we  were 
then  uncertain  what  had  happened  at  Lexington,  and 
knew  not  that  they  had  begun  the  quarrel  there  by  first 
firing  upon  our  people,  and  killing  eight  men  upon  the 
spot.)  The  three  companies  of  troops  soon  quitted  their 
post  at  the  bridge,  and  retreated  in  the  greatest  disorder 
and  confusion  to  the  main  body,  who  were  soon  upon  their 
march  to  meet  them. 

"  For  half  an  hour  the  enemy,  by  their  marches  and 
countermarches,  discovered  great  fickleness  and  incon- 
stancy of  mind, — sometimes  advancing,  sometimes  return- 
ing to  their  former  posts  ;  till  at  length  they  quitted  the 
town  and  retreated  by  the  way  they  came.  In  the  mean- 
time, a  party  of  our  men  (150),  took  the  back  way  through 


2  74 


Concord 


the  Great  Fields  into  the  East  Quarter,  and  had  phiced 
themselves  to  advantage,  lying  in  ambush  behind  walls, 
fences  and  buildings,  ready  to  fire  upon  the  enemy  on 
their  retreat." 

This  account  differs  sliorhtly  from  others,  and 
omits  many  particulars  ;   it  is  the  most  valuable 


HAWTHORNE'S  OLD  MANSE. 


single  version  of  the  memorable  skirmish  at  fhe 
Bridge, — in  itself  trifling,  but  momentous  in  its 
results.  Parson  Emerson  was  himself  one  of 
those  who  wished  to  meet  the  troops  near  his 


Concord  275 

own  meeting-house,  but  was  wisely  overruled. 
He  says  that  two  British  soldiers  were  killed 
at  the  Bridofe — Shattuck,  the  town  historian, 
says  three  ;  the  difference  is  accounted  for  by  a 
dismal  tale  which  Hawthorne  was  perhaps  the 
first  to  print.  He  derived  it,  he  says,  from 
Lowell,  the  poet,  who  had  picked  it  up,  no 
doubt,  in  his  short  residence  at  Concord  in  the 
spring  of  1838,  when  "rusticated"  here  from 
Harvard  College.  It  may  be  read  in  the 
Mosses  from  an  Old  Manse,  wherein  is  found 
one  of  the  best  pictures  of  our  peaceful  scenery, 
— so  far  removed  from  thought  of  bloodshed. 


"  A  youth,"  says  Hawthorne,  "  in  the  service  of  the 
clergyman  [Parson  Emerson],  happened  to  be  chopping 
wood,  that  April  morning,  at  the  back  door  of  the 
Manse  ;  and  when  the  noise  of  battle  rang  from  side  to 
side  of  the  Bridge,  he  left  his  task  and  hurried  to  the 
battle-field,  with  the  axe  still  in  his  hand.  The  British  had 
by  this  time  retreated,  the  Americans  were  in  pursuit  ; 
and  the  late  scene  of  strife  was  thus  deserted  by  both 
parties.  Two  soldiers  lay  on  the  ground — one  was  a 
corpse — but,  as  the  young  New  Englander  drew  nigh, 
the  other  Briton  raised  himself  painfully  upon  his  hands 
and  knees,  and  gave  a  ghastly  stare  in  his  face.  The 
boy — it  must  have  been  a  nervous  impulse,  without  pur- 
pose— uplifted  his  axe,  and  dealt  the  wounded  soldier 
a  fierce  and  fatal  blow  upon  the  head." 


276  Concord 

To  a  certain  extent,  Bancroft,  in  his  account 
of  the  fight,  confirms  this  tale,  saying : 

"  The  Americans  acted  from  impulse,  and  stood  aston- 
ished at  what  they  had  done.  They  made  no  (immedi- 
ate) pursuit,  and  did  no  further  harm, — except  that  one 
wounded  soldier,  rising  as  if  to  escape,  was  struck  on  the 
head  by  a  young  man  with  a  hatchet.  The  party  at  Col. 
Barrett's  might  have  been  cut  off,  but  was  not  molested." 

It  is  traditional  that  when  this  party,  which 
had  been  sent  to  destroy  the  military  stores  at 
Colonel  James  Barrett's,  two  miles  to  the  west- 
ward, came  back  to  the  Bridge,  alarmed  by  the 
firing,  and  saw  their  countrymen  lying  dead 
there,  one  of  them  with  his  head  laid  open, 
they  were  struck  with  fear  and  ran  on  to  the 
main  body  in  the  village,  telling  of  what  they 
had  seen.  And  it  was  this  single  incident,  very 
likely,  which  led  the  English  officers,  and  Lord 
Percy  himself,  to  report  "  that  the  rebels 
scalped  and  cut  off  the  ears  of  some  of  the 
wounded  who  fell  into  their  hands."  Bancroft 
indignantly  denies  this,  saying,  "  The  false- 
hood brings  dishonor  on  its  voucher  ;  the  peo- 
ple whom  Percy  reviled  were  among  the  mildest 
and  most  compassionate  of  their  race," — which 
is  true. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  the  British  troops  on 


Concord 


277 


their  flight  back  to  Boston  that  day,  pursued 
and  ambuscaded  by  hundreds  and  thousands  of 
the  aroused  miHtia  of  Middlesex  and  Essex 
counties,  should  themselves  have  committed 
some  barbarities, — for  their  defeat  and  humilia- 


REVOLUTIONARY   INN. 


lion  were  great.  They  lost  in  course  of  the 
day  273  men  and  officers, — more  than  had  fal- 
len on  that  glorious  day-sixteen  years  before, 
when  Wolfe  died  in  the  arms  of  victory  at 
Quebec,  The  loss  of  the  yeomanry  was  only 
ninety-one — a  third  of  the  British  loss, — while 
all  the  trophies  and  circumstances  of  victory 
were  on  the  American  side.  From  that  day, 
the  Revolution  was  begun, — to  end  only  with 


278  Concord 

the  creation  of  a  new  republic.  Concord,  as 
President  Dwight  said,  "  prefaced  the  history 
of  a  nation,  the  beginning  of  an  empire." 
"  Man,"  he  added,  "  from  the  events  that  have 
occurred  here,  will  in  some  respects  assume  a 
new  character ;  and  experience  a  new  destiny." 
Hence  the  interest  with  which  the  world,  from 
that  day  forward,  began  to  look  on  this  little 
town. 

Yet  the  prominence  of  Concord  in  the  re- 
volutionary century  that  followed  her  skirmish 
at  the  Bridge  and  along  the  Lexington  road 
was  in  part  accidental  ;  for  Boston  and  Vir- 
ginia were  the  two  foci  of  the  American  revolt, 
and  Concord  became  famous  chiefly  because 
it  was  near  Boston.  It  was  otherwise  with 
the  literary  revolution  that  began  sixty  years 
later,  with  Emerson  for  its  Washington, — and 
with  results  that  seem  as  permanent,  and  in 
some  sort  as  important,  as  those  which  Wash- 
ington secured  to  his  countrymen.  In  1835, 
when  Emerson's  literary  career  may  be  said  to 
have  fairly  begun,  America  had  maintained 
her  political  independence,  but  had  lost  much 
of  her  political  principle :  she  was  powerful 
without  moral  progress,  and  without  either  a 
profound  philosophy  or  an  original  literature. 


Concord  279 

The  beginnings  of  poetry  and  art  were  visible, 
but  they  were  more  in  promise  than  in  per- 
formance. Our  poHtical  writings,  though  dis- 
paraged by  Jeremy  Bentham,  were  coming  to 
be  recosfnized  as  amone  the  foremost ;  but  we 
had  Httle  else  that  Europe  cared  to  read, — a 
few  sketches  by  Irving,  a  dozen  novels  by 
Cooper,  two  or  three  sermons  and  as  many 
essays  by  Channing. 

Into  the  stagnation  of  this  shallow  pool  of 
American  letters,  Emerson,  in  1836,  cast  the 
smooth  stone  of  his  philosophical  first  book, 
— Nature.  It  made  little  immediate  stir; 
the  denizens  of  the  pool  paid  small  heed  to 
it,  and  few  of  them  guessed  what  it  meant. 
It  was  written  in  Concord,  and  chiefly  at 
the  Old  Manse,  where  Emerson  dwelt  with 
his  mother  and  kindred  before  his  second 
marriage  in  1835,  and  where  Hawthorne  after- 
ward made  the  house  and  himself  widely 
known.  The  fixing  of  his  own  residence 
in  this  town  by  Emerson  was  due  in  part 
to  ancestry,  and  still  more  to  a  perception  of 
the  fitness  of  the  region  for  the  abode  of  a 
poet  and  sage.  The  same  perception,  by 
Hawthorne,  Alcott,  Ellery  Channing  and  oth- 
ers,— together  with  the  important  fact  that  it 


28o 


Concord 


was  Emerson's  chosen  retreat, — brought  those 
literary  men  here.  Thoreau,  the  most  original 
and  peculiar  genius  of  the  whole  group,  was 
born  here,  and  never  had  much  inclination   to 

leave  Concord,  al- 
though in  youth  he 
talked  of  adventur- 
ing to  the  wild  West, 
— Kentucky  and  Illi- 
nois at  that  time, — - 
whither  his  friend, 
Ellery  C  banning, 
afterward  did  in  fact 
eo.  Around  Emer- 
son,  this  circle,  with 
many  who  only  lived 
here  temporarily 
(like  Margaret  Fuller 
and  George  William  Curtis),  or  not  at  all,  gath- 
ered as  friends  and  brothers,  or  else  as  disci- 
ples,— and  thus  the  name  of  Concord  became 
associated,  and  justly,  with  a  special  and  re- 
markable school  of  thought  and  literature. 
Thousands  now  visit  the  graves  of  these  worth- 
ies, to  which,  and  to  their  haunts  in  life — their 
walks  and  seats  and  sylvan  places  of  resort, — an 
increasing  host  of  pilgrims  come  year  by  year. 


HENRY  THOREAU.    (1857.) 


Concord  281 

The  Arabs  have  a  proverb, — "  Though  a 
hundred  deserts  separate  the  heart  of  the 
Faithful  from  the  Kaaba  of  Mecca,  yet  there 
opens  a  window  from  its  sanctuary  into  thy 
soul."  For  those  who  have  the  true  inward 
illumination,  therefore,  pilgrimage  is  not  need- 
ful ;  yet  to  all  it  is  agreeable,  and  it  has  been  the 
practice  of  mankind  for  ages,  and  will  be,  so 
long  as  we  remain  ourselves  but  pilgrims  and 
wayfarers  on  this  earth.  Nasar,  the  son  of 
Khosrou,  who  wrote  in  the  time  of  Haroun 
Al-Rashid,  and  called  his  book  The  Traveller  s 
Wallet,  was  not  the  first,  nor  Bunyan,  with 
his  Pilgrims  Progress,  the  last,  to  look  on  life 
as  a  journey  ;  but  let  us  hear  what  that  Persian 
says  of  it  : 

"  Man,  endowed  with  intellect,  must  search  into  the 
origin  of  his  existence, — whence  he  came,  and  whither 
he  shall  go, — reflecting  that  in  this  world  he  is  making  a 
toilsome  journey,  without  stop  or  stay, — not  even  for  the 
twinkling  of  an  eye, — until  he  has  traversed  the  measure 
of  that  line  which  marks  the  time  allotted  for  his  exist- 
ence. For  that  we  are  but  pilgrims  here  on  earth,  God 
has  mysteriously  declared." 

The  attraction  of  Emerson  and  the  rest  of 
the  Concord  authors,  whose  homes  or  tombs 
so  many  pilgrims  visit,  comes  chiefly  from  the 
recognition  by  them  of  this  search  by  mankind 


282  Concord 

after  the  Infinite, — their  insight  into  the  nature 
and  worth  of  this  pilgrimage  of  hfe  which  all 
are  making.  Man  loves  and  seeks  amusement 
to  beguile  his  toilsome  or  monotonous  journey, 
— and  hence  the  pleasure  so  many  take  in  the 
lighter  and  more  graceful  or  laughable  forms 
of  literature.  But  sooner  or  later,  and  in  many 
persons  at  all  times,  what  Tennyson  calls 
"  the  riddle  of  the  painful  earth  "  is  before  us 
all  for  consideration,  if  not  for  solution.  We  see 
that  the  universe  is  moral, — even  if  we  cannot 
read  the  moral  aright, — and  we  seek  those  who 
can  give  us  "  the  word  of  the  enigma,"  as  the 
French  say.  Emerson  gave  it  in  his  manner, 
Hawthorne  in  his,  Thoreau  in  still  another  way  ; 
and  these  three  Concord  authors  not  only  had 
much  vogue  in  their  lifetime,  but  are  yet  more 
widely  read  since  their  death.  Others,  like 
Ellery  Channing,  found  little  audience  in  youth, 
and  time  has  not  yet  essentially  enlarged  the 
circle  of  their  readers.  With  the  same  moral 
view  of  life  which  his  more  successful  friends 
took,  Channing,  the  poet  (who  must  always  be 
distinguished  from  Dr.  Channing,  the  divine, 
his  uncle),  had  in  his  style  something  of  that 
distraction  which  Montaigne  declares  is  needful 
to  poets. 


284  Concord 

"  The  precepts  of  the  masters,"  says  this  eccentric 
Gascon,  "  and  still  more  their  example,  tell  us  that  we 
must  have  a  little  insanity,  if  we  would  avoid  even  more 
stupidity.  A  thousand  poets  drawl  and  languish  in 
prose  ;  but  the  best  ancient  prose  (and  'tis  the  same 
with  verse)  glows  throughout  with  the  vigor  and  daring 
of  poesy,  and  takes  on  an  air  of  inspiration.  The  poet, 
says  Plato  "  (and  here  Montaigne  gives  his  own  quaint 
form  to  the  familiar  passage  in  Plato's  Laws),  "  sitting  on 
the  Muses'  tripod,  pours  out  like  mad  all  that  comes  into 
his  mouth,  as  if  it  were  the  spout  of  a  fountain  ;  without 
digesting  or  weighing  it.  So  things  escape  him  of  vari- 
ous colors,  of  opposite  natures,  and  with  intermittent 
flow.  Plato  himself  is  wholly  poetic  ;  the  old  theology, 
say  the  scholars,  is  all  poetry  ;  and  the  First  Philosophy 
is  the  original  language  of  the  gods." 

To  this  wild  rule  more  than  one  of  the  Con- 
cord philosophers  conforms  ;  there  is  a  percept- 
ible lack  of  method,  even  when  their  meaning 
is  fairly  clear.  Hawthorne  incurs  less  of  this 
censure  than  the  rest  ;  but  he  confessed  that 
he  did  not  always  comprehend  his  own  allegor- 
ies, nor  know  exactly  the  moral  he  would  in- 
sinuate. Emerson  goes  more  directly  to  his 
mark ;  a  Frenchman  (Chantavoine)  has  said 
of  him,  "  In  his  Essays  he  is  first  of  all  a  philo- 
sophic moralist,  never  quite  forgetting  that  he 
was  once  a  preacher."  But,  in  contrasting  him 
with  French  writers,  Chantavoine   admits  that 


Concord  285 

Emerson  has   something  which  the  Hght  and 
brilHant  Parisian  essayists  lack  : 

"  We  are  afraid,  I  suppose,  of  losing  touch  with  things, 
if  we  rise  much  above  them  ;  we  do  not  soar  high,  con- 
tent to  skim  the  surface  ;  we  distrust  those  generalities, 
however  eloquent  or  edifying,  which  might  lead  us  too 
far  aside.  Yet,  should  we  borrow  something  of  Emer- 
son's manner,  French  criticism,  both  historical  and  liter- 
ary, would  gain  by  it ;  there  might  possibly  be  less  ease, 
less  lightness  of  touch,  less  glancing  wit  in  our  essays  ; 
but  in  return  there  would  be  more  earnestness  and 
depth  in  our  judgments  on  men  and  affairs." 

Emerson  was  a  reader  and  admirer  of  French 
prose  ;  he  did  not  find  much  poetry  in  French 
verse.  The  glancing  of  his  wit  was  as  quick 
and  searching  as  that  of  Paris  ;  but  he  belongs 
more  to  the  literature  of  the  world  than  most  of 
the  French  prose  authors  since  Montaigne  and 
Pascal.  In  American  literature  he  is  unique  ; 
so,  in  his  very  different  way,  is  Thoreau  ;  so  is 
Hawthorne  ;  and  no  American,  not  even  one 
of  these  three,  can  be  compared  with  any  of 
them  on  terms  of  similarity.  There  is  that 
in  their  best  writing  which  puts  us  upon  our 
best  thinking,  and  leads  us  along  the  upper 
levels  of  life.  Particularly  is  this  true  of 
Emerson  ;  Virtue,   radiant,  serene  and  sover- 


286  Concord 

ei<Tn,  swavs  the  realm  where  Emerson  abides, 
and  to  which  he  welcomes  his  readers,  who 
become  his  friends.  It  was  said  of  Socrates, 
in  a  dubious  compliment,  that  he  "brought 
philosophy  down  from  heaven  to  earth "  ;  it 
mio-ht  as  trulv  be  said  of  Emerson  that  he 
raises  earth  to  the  level  of  divine  philosophy. 
His  method  in  this  is  purely  poetic  ;  therefore, 
while  in  verse  he  lacks  what  is  usually  called 
creative  power,  he  brings  with  him  the  atmos- 
phere of  poesy  more  constantly  than  any  modern 
poet ;  nor,  since  Milton,  Spenser,  and  Shake- 
speare, has  any  English  poet  excelled  him  in  this. 
To  this  quality,  as  well  as  to  his  courage  of 
opinion  and  his  penetrating  insight,  do  we  owe 
it  that  he  first  proclaimed  our  intellectual  inde- 
pendence of  the  mother-country,  as  Franklin, 
Washington  and  Jefferson  declared  our  politi- 
cal independence.  There  is,  indeed,  a  certain 
resemblance  between  Washington  and  Emer- 
son which  might  escape  the  notice  of  those 
who  look  chiefly  at  the  totally  different  work 
each  had  to  do,  and  the  diversity  of  life  and 
opinion  which  contrasted  Virginia  and  New 
England    so   sharply. 

It    must  be    confessed   that,   in    1732.    Con- 
cord was  hardly   so    constituted    as   naturally 


288  Concord 

to  give  birth  to  Washingtons  ;  indeed,  Vir- 
ginia produced  but  this  one,  amid  all  her  great 
men.  The  extreme  narrowness  of  Puritan 
opinion,  even  when  modified  by  Baptists  and 
Quakers,  was  not  favorable  to  the  rise  of  men 
like  the  great  Virginians  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  A  milder  intellectual  climate,  a  tem- 
per less  given  to  disputes  about  faith  and 
works,  election  and  reprobation,  was  needful 
to  produce  characters  so  broad,  so  moderate, 
and  yet  so  firm,  as  Washington's.  New  Eng- 
land did  give  birth  to  Franklin,  in  the  very 
midst  of  Mathers  and  Sewalls  ;  but  he  had  to 
slip  away  to  Philadelphia,  in  order  to  grow 
into  his  full  stature  as  philanthropist  and  phil- 
osopher. The  intolerance  of  New  England 
deprived  us,  for  more  than  a  century,  of  the 
opportunity  to  produce  genius  and  the  gentler 
forms  of  heroism.  We  had  the  Adamses  to  set 
the  Revolution  on  foot,  the  soldiers  of  New 
Hampshire  and  rural  New  England  to  fight 
its  battles  ;  but  its  noblest  leader  must  come 
to  us  from  the  Potomac,  and  take  us  back 
there,  when  the  long  fight  was  won,  to  estab- 
lish our  government  beside  its  waters,  in  sight 
of  his  own  broad  domain.  It  was  not  till  this 
century,  now   declining,  that    Concord    could 


Concord  289 

show  an  intellectual  Washington  ;  and  Emer- 
son must  be  born  in  Boston,  less  provincial 
than  our  meadowy  village,  our  "  rural  Venice," 
as  Thoreau  called  it  in  times  of  river-freshet. 

Naturally,  when  men  appear  on  earth  of 
Washington's  or  of  Emerson's  stamp,  there 
has  been  a  long  preparation  for  their  advent. 
They  are  not  found  among  Hottentots  or 
corn-crackers,  'longshoremen  or  cowboys  ;  but 
in  some  long-tilled  garden  of  the  human 
species,  where  certain  qualities  have  been 
inbred  by  descent  and  betterment  for  many 
generations.  Poverty  may  be  their  birthright, 
as  in  the  case  of  that  greatest  of  Washington's 
successors,  Abraham  Lincoln,  but  the  experi- 
ences that  are  transmuted  by  descent  into 
greatness  are  quite  as  often  those  of  poverty 
as  of  wealth.  Self-reliance,  veracity,  courage, 
and  the  gift  of  command  are  essentials  in  the 
founders  and  preservers  of  nations  ;  these  are 
fostered  in  all  new  colonies,  and  therefore 
were  common  qualities  in  New  England,  as 
in  Kentucky  and  Virginia,  in  their  early  years. 
But  among  the  planters  of  Virginia  there  grew 
up  a  form  of  society,  now  forever  extinct  there, 
in  which  these  high  qualities,  together  with 
courtesy  and  breadth  of  view,  were  cultivated 


290  Concord 

and  flourished  to  an  extent  which  the  Cal 
vinistic  rigors  and  enforced  economies  of  New 
England  never  knew.  That  petty  system  of 
inquiring  into  creeds  and  points  of  doctrine 
which  our  ancestors  brought  with  them  from 
the  Puritan  parishes  of  England,  and  which 
was  increased  here  by  infusions  from  Scotland, 
and  the  tyranny  of  ecclesiastical  control  in 
Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  was  not  wholly 
unknown  in  Virginia  ;  but  its  ill  effects  were 
dissipated  by  the  customs  of  large  landholding, 
outdoor  sports,  and  certain  traditions  of  honor 
and  breeding  which  the  best  of  the  Virginians 
brought  with  them  from  England,  and  kept 
up  by  their  habit  of  frequent  intercourse  with 
the  mother-country. 

It  was  no  sin  in  Virginia  to  dance  and 
play  the  fiddle  ;  the  Anglican  Church,  while 
prescribing  a  formal  creed,  did  not  concern 
itself  to  inquire  every  Sunday,  or  every 
Thursday,  into  all  the  dogmatic  abstractions 
of  the  Westminster  Assembly's  Catechism, 
longer  or  shorter ;  men's  minds  were  left 
to  take  the  course  most  natural  to  them. 
But  in  New  England,  along  with  much  acute 
speculation  (the  best  type  of  which  is  Jona- 
than Edwards),  there  went  a  morbid  conscien- 


Concord  291 

tiousness,  turning  its  eyes  upon  inward  and 
even  petty  matters,  and  leading  to  number- 
less quarrels  about  Original  Sin,  Half-way 
Covenants,  Justification  by  Faith,  etc.  Con- 
cord was  less  infested  by  this  carping,  persecut- 
ing, quarrelsome  spirit  than  most  of  New 
England  ;  yet  the  church  records,  and  the  col- 
lections of  old  Dr.  Ripley,  show  there  was 
much  of  it.  Emerson  declares,  and  justly, 
that  good  sense  has  marked  our  town  annals  : 
"  I  find  no  ridiculous  laws,  no  eaves-dropping 
legislators,  no  hanging  of  witches,  no  ghosts, 
no  whipping  of  Quakers,  no  unnatural  crimes." 
But  the  spirit  which  led  to  these  mischiefs  in 
other  regions  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecti- 
cut was  all  about  us ;  and  it  narrowed  the 
minds  and  the  opportunities  of  Concord  before 
the  Revolution.  It  was  chiefly  in  New  Hamp- 
shire, Maine  and  Vermont,  where  ecclesiastical 
domination  was  less  rigid,  that  mental  freedom 
manifested  itself.  In  the  other  colonies  of 
the  North,  wealth  and  culture  were  apt  to  be 
on  the  side  of  England,  when  our  troubles 
began  ;  in  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas,  and  to 
some  extent  in  New  Hampshire  and  Maine, 
wealth  took  the  colonial  side. 

We    may    call    the    imaginative    force    and 


292  Concord 

breadth    of    the     Concord    authors    "  Shake- 
spearian "  for  lack  of  a  better  word  ;  but  there 
was    a    man    of    singular    mental    penetration 
sometimes     visiting    here, —  Jones     Very,     of 
Salem, — who  once  made  a  wider  generaliza- 
tion— whether   wisely    or    not.      When    Very 
was   asked    to    discriminate    betwixt    Wisdom 
and   Genius,   he  said,   "  Wisdom    is    of    God ; 
Genius  is  the  decay  of  Wisdom "  ;  adding  in 
explanation,     "  To    the     pre-existent     Shake- 
speare,    wisdom 
was  offered  ;    he 
did    not    accept 
it,     and     so     he 
died    away    into 
ofenius."  We  had 
a  superior    sage 
here      (Bronson 
A  1  c  o  1 1),     who 
had  little  of  the 
Shakespearian 
eenius,  but  much 
of     that     mystic 
wisdom   which 

A.   BRONSON  ALCOTT.     (1875.)  y  ^  ^  ^^        thoUght 

older  and  nobler  than  genius.      Religion   was 
his  native  air, — the   religion   of  identity,    not 


Concord  293 

of  variety ;  he  could  not  be  polytheistic, 
as  many  Christians  are,  even  while  fancying" 
themselves  the  most  orthodox  worshippers  of 
the  One  God.  He  had  that  intense  applica- 
tion of  the  soul  to  one  side  of  this  sphere  of 
life,  which  led  him  to  neglect  the  exercise 
of  intellectual  powers  that  were  amply  his. 
His  gift  it  was,  not  to  expand  our  life  into 
multiplicity, — which  was  the  tendency  of  Emer- 
son, as  of  Goethe  and  Shakespeare, — but  to 
concentrate  multiplicity  in  unity,  seeking  ever 
the  ONE  source  whence  flow  these  myriad  mani- 
festations. His  friends  used  to  call  him,  in 
sport,  the  "  Vortical  philosopher,"  because  his 
speculations  all  moved  vortically  toward  a 
centre,  or  were  occupied  with  repeating  one 
truth  in  many  forms.  He  was  a  votary  of  the 
higher  Reason  ;  not  without  certain  foibles 
of  the  saint  ;  but  belonging  unmistakably  to 
the  saintly  order.  Of  course  he  was  the  mock 
of  the  market-place,  as  all  but  the  belligerent 
saints  are  ;  but  he  was  a  profound,  vivifying 
influence  in  the  lives  of  the  few  who  recog- 
nized his  inward  light. 

From  Alcott,  in  his  old  age, — he  was  in  his 
eightieth  year  when  the  experiment  began, — 
came  the  impulse  to  that  later  manifestation 


294  Concord 

of  the  same  spirit  which  had  led  Emerson 
and  his  youthful  friends  to  the  heights  and 
depths  of  Transcendentalism.  I  speak  of  the 
Concord  School  of  Philosophy,  which,  in  the 
last  years  of  Emerson  and  Alcott,  and  with 
the  co-operation  of  disciples  of  other  philo- 
sophic opinion,  gave  to  the  town  a  celebrity 
in  some  degree  commensurate  with  its  earlier 
reputation.  It  began  in  the  library  of  Alcott's 
Orchard  House,  where  his  genial  daughter, 
Louisa,  had  written  several  of  her  charming 
books  ;  it  was  continued  in  a  chapel,  built  for 
the  purpose,  under  the  lee  of  Alcott's  pine- 
clad  hill,  and  amid  his  orchard  and  vineyard. 
It  brought  to  reside  in  Concord  that  first  of 
American  philosophers.  Dr.  W.  T.  Harris; 
and  it  gathered  hundreds  of  eager  or  curious 
hearers  to  attend  the  lectures  and  debates  on 
grave  subjects  which  a  learned  body  of  teach- 
ers gave  forth.  It  continued  in  existence  from 
the  summer  of  1879  to  that  of  1888,  when 
its  lessons  were  fitly  closed  with  a  memorial 
service  for  Bronson  Alcott,  its  founder,  who 
had  died  in  March,  1888.  As  was  said  by  the 
Boston  wit  of  the  fight  on  the  19th  of  April, — 
"  The  Battle  of  Lexington  ;  Concord  furnished 
the  ground,  and  Acton  the  men," — so  it  might 


■1  ,    ->^   >    vXS^  ^-<SJx;, 


295 


296  Concord 

be  said  of  this  summer  university,  that  Con- 
cord provided  chiefly  the  place  in  which  St. 
Louis  and  Ilhnois,  New  York  and  Boston, 
Harvard  and  Yale,  held  converse  on  hieh 
topics.  Yet  Concord  gave  the  school  hospi- 
tality, and  several  of  its  famous  authors  took 
part  in  the  exercises, — sometimes  posthum- 
ously, by  the  reading  of  their  manuscripts,  as 
in  the  case  of  Thoreau. 

Along  with  the  events  and  the  literature 
that  have  given  our  town  a  name  throughout 
the  world,  there  has  flowed  quietly  the  stream 
of  civil  society,  local  self-government  and 
domestic  life  ;  broadened  at  critical  times  by 
manifestations  of  political  energy,  in  which 
families  like  those  of  Hoar,  Hey  wood,  Bar- 
rett, Whiting,  Robinson,  Gourgas,  etc.,  have 
distinguished  themselves.  Benefactors  like 
Munroe,  who  built  the  Public  Library,  Dr. 
Ripley,  who  for  half  a  century  filled  the 
pulpit  and  took  pastoral  care,  and  John  Tile- 
ston,  who  brought  the  public  schools  to  their 
present  useful  form  ;  soldiers  of  the  Civil 
War,  like  Colonel  Prescott  and  Lieutenant 
Ripley,  and  hundreds  of  unnamed  soldiers  in 
the  battle  of  life,— women  no  less  than  men, — 
have  given  their  innumerable  touch  of  vigor 


Concord 


297 


and  grace  to  the  ever-building  structure  of 
Concord  life.  Painters  of  our  own  have  added 
color,  and  sculptors  like  French,  Elwell  and 
Ricketson  have  adorned  the  town  with  art. 
And  so  we  pass  on  into  the  new  century,  with 
no  conscious  loss  of  vital  power, — yet  with  a 
keen  regret  for  the  great  men  who  have  gone 
from  amontr  us. 


PLYMOUTH 


THE  PILGRIM  TOWN 


By  ELLEN  WATSON 

"  Glory    of   Virtue,  to    fight,  to    struggle,  to    right    the 
wrong  ;— 
Nay,  but  she  aimed  not  at  glory,  no  lover  of  glory  she  ; 
Give  her  the  glory  of  going  on,  and  still  to  be." 

Tennyson's  Wages. 

TO  the  stout-hearted  Pilgrims  who  landed 
here  in  1620  this  "  glory  of  going  on,  and 
still  to  be"  has  been  meted  in  lavish  measure. 
For  nearly  three  hundred  years  the  fire  first 
kindled  in  far-away  Scrooby  in  the  hearts  of 
John  Robinson,  Elder  Brewster,  Richard  Clyf- 
ton,  the  youthful  William  Bradford  and  their 
devoted  followers  has  burned  with  a  clear 
flame  ;  the  torch  of  truth  there  lit  by  them  has 
been  handed  on  from  generation  to  generation. 
For  the  many  latter-day  pilgrims  who  visit 
the  shrines  of  New  England,  the  gray  boulder 

299 


300  Plymouth 

on  Clarke's  Island  where  the  weary  voyagers 
rested  after  their  stormy  cruise  in  the  shallop  ; 
the  humble  rock  on  our  shore  where  they  at 
length  found  shelter  ;  our  noble  statue  of  "  clear- 
eyed  Faith  "  and  the  not  far  distant  monument 
on  Bunker  Hill,  will  ever  bear  like  testimony 
to  the  courage  of  that  little  band  of  independ- 
ent thinkers.  Meeting  in  secret  in  the  Manor- 
House  of  Scrooby,  these  far-sighted  heroes, 
when  they  "  shooke  of  the  yoake  of  antichrist- 
ian  bondage  "  of  the  Church  of  England,  made 
possible  for  their  descendants  a  later  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  ! 

And  every  year,  with  the  new  knowledge  it 
brings,  adds  to  the  pathos  of  that  early  en- 
deavor after  religious  and  civil  liberty.  Many 
English  scholars,  generously  overlooking  the 
Separation  of  1776,  have  traced  on  the  mother 
soil  of  Old  England  the  very  beginnings  of  the 
Separatist  movement,  and  thanks  to  their  care- 
ful study  of  musty  records  and  yellow  parch- 
ments we  now  have  a  satisfactory,  though  still 
incomplete,  record  of  those  few  eventful  lives 
to  which  we  proudly  owe  our  present  freedom. 

One  enthusiast  even  finds  the  earliest  evid- 
ences of  this  movement  in  the  concerted  ac- 
tion of  certain  rebellious  weavers  of  the  twelfth 


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FACSIMILE  OF  A  PAGE  FROM  GOVERNOR   BRADFORD'S  MANUSCRIPT,  "  PLIMOTH   PLANTATION." 

THE    ORIGINAL    IS    NOW    IN    THE    BOSTON    STATE    HOUSE. 


302 


Plymouth 


century — thirty  weavers  of  the  diocese  of 
Worcester — who  were  summoned  before  the 
Council  of  Oxford  to  answer  a  charge  of  mak- 
ing light  of  the  sacraments  and  of  priestly 
power.  Though  they  answered  that  they  were 
Christians  and  reverenced  the  teachings  of  the 


Copyright,  1893,  by  A.  S.  Burbank. 


PULPIT   RUCK,    CLARKE'S   ISLAND. 


apostles,  they  were  driven  from  the  country  as 
heretics,  to  perish  of  cold.  This  "  pious  firm- 
ness "  on  the  part  of  the  council,  writes  the 
short-sighted  chronicler,  not  only  cleansed  the 
realm  of  England  from  the  pestilence  which 
had  crept  in,  but  also  prevented  it  from  creep- 
ing in  again.       But  the  pestilence  did  creep  in 


Plymouth  303 

again  and  again  and  the  weeds  grew  apace,  for 
which  thanks  are  chiefly  due  to  John  Wychf 
and  his  followers. 

Even  before  the  Reformation  Foxe  tells  of 
"  secret  multitudes  who  tasted  and  followed  the 
sweetness  of  God's  Holy  Word,  and  whose 
fervent  zeal  may  appear  by  their  sitting  up  all 
night  in  reading  and  hearing."  But  we  must  be 
content  to  trace  our  ancestry  and  our  love  of 
liberty  to  the  early  years  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  at  which  time,  as  we  may  now  all  read 
in  the  clear  lettering  of  Bradford's  own  pen, 

"  truly  their  affliction  was  not  smale  ;  which  notwithstand- 
ing they  bore  sundrie  years  with  much  patience,  till  they 
were  occasioned  to  see  further  into  things  by  the  light  Oi 
y^  word  of  God.  How  not  only  these  base  and  beggerly 
ceremonies  were  unlawfuU,  but  also  that  y'  lordly  &r 
tiranous  power  of  y'  prelats  ought  not  to  be  submitted 
unto  ;  which  thus,  contrary  to  the  freedome  of  the  gos- 
pell,  would  load  &  burden  mens  consciences,  and  by 
their  compulsive  power  make  a  prophane  mixture  of  per- 
sons and  things  in  the  worship  of  God.  And  that  their 
offices  &  calings,  courts  and  cannons  &c.  were  unlaw- 
fuU and  antichristian  ;  being  such  as  have  no  warrantein 
y*  word  of  God  ;  but  the  same  that  were  used  in  poperie 
&  still  retained." 

So  these  brave  men,  whose  hearts  the  Lord 
had  touched  with  heavenly  zeal  for  His  truth. 


304  Plymouth 

"  as  y'  Lords  free  peojjle  joined  them  selves  into  a 
church  estate,  in  y"  felowship  of  y'  gosjjell,  to  walke  in 
all  his  wayes,  made  known,  or  to  be  made  known  unto 
them,  according  to  their  best  endeavours,  whatsoever  it 
should  cost  them,  the  Lord  assisting  them.  And  that  it 
cost  them  something  this  ensewing  historie  will  declare." 

The  charming-  scene  of  these  secret  meet- 
ings is  now  well  known.  In  the  little  village 
of  Scrooby,  where  the  three  shires  of  Notting- 
ham, York  and  Lincoln  join  their  borders,  then 
stood  a  stately  manor-house,  once  the  favorite 
hunting-seat  of  the  archbishops  of  York. 
Under  this  hospitable  but  already  somewhat 
crumbling  roof  William  Brewster,  Vv^ho  had 
been  appointed  "Post"  of  Scrooby  in  1590, 
welcomed  these  sufferers  for  conscience  sake. 
Hither  they  stole  through  the  green  country 
lanes,  from  far  around  to  listen  to  the  "  illumin- 
ating ministry"  of  Richard  Clyfton, 

"a  grave  &  revered  preacher  who  under  God  had  been 
a  means  of  y^  conversion  of  many.  And  also  that 
famous  and  worthy  man,  Mr.  John  Robinson,  who  after- 
wards was  their  pastor  for  many  years  till  y^  Lord  tooke 
him  away  by  death." 

Here,  too,  from  the  neighboring  hamlet  of 
Austerfield,  came  the  lad  William  Bradford, 
already  eager  for    spiritual  guidance.      Walk- 


THE  EARLY  NORMAN   DOORWAY  AT  AUSTERFIELD  CHURCH. 


305 


3o6  Plymouth 

ing  under  the  elm-trees  of  the  highroad,  and 
through  the  yellow  gorse,  across  green  mead- 
ows and  by  the  banks  of  the  placid  Idle,  he 
stopped  perhaps  to  admire  the  mulberry-tree 
planted  there  by  the  world-weary  Cardinal 
Wolsey.  That  arch-enemy  of  the  Reforma- 
tion little  thought  that  a  branch  of  this  tree 
would  one  day  cross  the  Atlantic,  to  be  pre- 
served with  Pilgrim  relics  by  friends  of  that 
"  new,  pernicious  sect  of  Lutherans,"  against 
which  he  warned  the  king  ! 

Near  Bradford's  birthplace  in  Austerfield 
now  stands,  completely  restored,  the  twelfth- 
century  parish  church  where  he  was  baptized 
in  1590,  and  from  which  he  "seceded"  when 
about  seventeen  years  old.  Did  the  quaint 
old  bell-cote  with  the  two  small  bells,  the  beau- 
tiful Norman  arch  of  the  southern  doorway 
with  its  rich  zigzag  ornament  and  beak-headed 
moulding,  the  wicked-looking  dragon  on  the 
tympanum,  with  the  tongue  of  fiame — did  this 
perfect  picture  of  Old-World  beauty  flash 
across  his  memory  when,  some  thirty  years 
later,  he  helped  build  the  rude  fort  on  our  Bur- 
ial Hill,  which  served  as  the  first  "  Meeting- 
House"  in  New  England  ? 

We  like  to  believe  that  Bradford  belonged 


Plymouth 


307 


to  the  honest  yeoman  class,  that  he  "  was  used 
to  a  plaine  country  life  &  the  innocente  trade 
of  husbandrey  "  ;  we  know  that  he  had  a  natu- 
ral love  of  study  which  led  him,  despite  the 
many  difficulties  he  met,  to  master  the  Dutch 


Copyright  Ijy  A.  b.  Burbauk. 

THE  OLD  FORT  AND  FIRST  MEETING-HOUSE,  ON   BURIAL  HILL,   1621. 

tongue  as  well  as  French,  Latin,  Greek  and 
Hebrew,  which  latter  tongue  he  studied  the 
more,  "that  he  might  see  with  his  own  eyes 
the  ancient  oracles  of  God  in  all  their  native 
beauty." 

Associated  as  teacher  here  with  the  vener- 
able Richard  Clyfton,  "  the  minister  with  the 
long  white  beard,"  and  succeeding  him  as  pas- 
tor, we  have  found  the  eloquent  John    Rob- 


3o8  Plymouth 

inson,  that  winner  of  all  men's  hearts,  that 
helper  of  all  men's  souls.  A  youthful  student 
at  Cambridge,  living  in  an  age  and  in  an  at- 
mosphere of  religious  questioning,  he  was 
deeply  troubled  with  scruples  concerning  con- 
formity. He  tells  us  "  had  not  the  truth  been 
in  my  heart  as  a  burning  fire  shut  up  in  my 
bones,  I  had  never  broken  those  bonds  of 
flesh  and  blood  wherein  I  was  so  straitly  tied, 
but  had  suffered  the  light  of  God  to  have 
been  put  out  in  mine  unthankful  heart  by 
other  men's  darkness."  Happy  in  finding 
congenial  spirits  in  the  new  community  at 
Scrooby,  Bradford  tells  us  he  soon  became 

"  every  way  as  a  commone  father  unto  them."  "  Yea, 
such  was  y*  mutuall  love  and  reciprocal!  respecte  that 
this  worthy  man  had  to  his  flocke  and  his  flocke  to  him 
that  it  might  be  said  of  them  as  it  once  was  of  that  fa- 
mouse  Emperour,  Marcus  Aurelious  and  y*"  people  of 
Rome,  that  it  was  hard  to  judge  wheather  he  delighted 
more  in  haveing  such  a  people,  or  they  in  haveing  such  a 
pastor.  His  love  was  greate  towards  them,  and  his  care 
was  all  ways  bente  for  their  best  good,  both  for  soul  & 
body." 

Under  his  inspiring  guidance,  and  with  Wil- 
liam Brewster  as  their  especial  stay  and  help, 
they  were  mercifully  enabled  to  "  wade  through 


Plymouth  309 

things."  Some  twenty-three  years  older  than 
Bradford,  we  learn  from  that  modest  chronicler, 
who  wrote  "  in  a  plaine  stile,  with  singuler 
regard  unto  y^  simple  trueth  in  all  things," 
that  Brewster  had  also  a  wider  experience  of 
the  world. 

"  After  he  had  attained  some  learning,  viz.,  the  know- 
ledge of  the  Latin  tongue  and  some  insight  into  the 
Greek,  and  spent  some  small  time  at  Cambridge,  and 
then  being  first  seasoned  with  the  seeds  of  grace  and 
virtue,  he  went  to  the  Court,  and  served  that  religious 
and  godly  gentleman,  Mr.  Davison,  divers  years,  when 
he  was  Secretary  of  State,  who  found  him  so  discreet  and 
faithful,  as  he  trusted  him  above  all  others  that  were 
about  him,  and  only  employed  him  in  matters  of  greatest 
trust  and  secrecy." 

After  the  innocent  Davison  was  committed  to 
the  Tower  by  the  treacherous  "  Good  Queen 
Bess,"  Brewster  retired  to  Scrooby,  where  he 
greatly  promoted  and  furthered  their  good 
cause  :  "  he  himself  most  commonly  deepest 
in  the  charge,  and  sometimes  above  his  ability, 
and  in  this  estate  he  continued  many  years, 
doing  the  best  he  could,  and  walking  accord- 
ing to  the  light  he  saw,  until  the  Lord  revealed 
further  unto  him." 

But  these  assemblies,  however  humble  and 


3IO  Plymouth 

secret,  could  not  long  escape  the  vigilant  eye 
of  the  law.     They  were  now 

"  hunted  and  persecuted  on  every  side,  so  as  their  former 
afflictions  were  but  as  flea-bitings  in  comparison  of  these 
which  now  came  upon  them.  For  some  were  taken 
and  clapt  up  in  prison,  others  had  their  houses  besett 
&  watcht  night  and  day,  &  hardly  escaped  their  hands  ; 
and  y'  most  were  faine  to  flie  and  leave  their  howses 
and  habitations,  and  the  means  of  their  livelihood." 
"  Seeing  them  selves  so  molested,  and  that  ther  was  no 
hope  of  their  continuance  ther,  by  a  joynte  consente 
they  resolved  to  goe  into  the  Low-Countries,  wher  they 
heard  was  freedome  of  Religion  for  all  men." 

This  quitting  their  native  soil,  their  dear 
friends  and  their  happy  homes  to  earn  their 
living,  they  knew  not  how,  in  a  foreign  country, 
was  indeed  considered  by  many  of  them  to  be 
"  an  adventure  almost  desperate,  a  case  in- 
tolerable, &  a  misserie  worse  than  death." 
But  after  many  betrayals,  many  delays,  many 
hardships  by  land  and  sea,  they  finally 
weathered  all  opposing  storms.  At  Amster- 
dam, that  friendly  city  of  the  Netherlands 
Republic,  whose  Declaration  of  Independence 
dates  from  July  26,  1581,  they  met  together 
again,  with  no  small  rejoicing. 

But  in  the  midst  of  the  wealth  of  this  fair 
city  they  soon  saw  "  the  grime  and  grisly  face  of 


Plymouth  311 

povertie  coming  upon  them  like  an  armed  man, 
with  whom  they  must  bukle  and  incounter, 
and  from  whom  they  could  not  flye."  For  this 
reason,  and  to  avoid  religious  contentions 
already  rife  there,  in  a  year's  time  they  decided 
to  remove  to  Leyden,  "a  fair  and  bewtifull 
citie,  &  of  a  sweete  situation."  Here  the 
story  of  the  long  siege  of  Leyden,  bravely 
sustained  in  1573,  must  have  excited  their 
ready  sympathy,  and  the  city's  choice  of  a 
university,  offered  by  William  of  Orange, 
instead  of  the  exemption  the  city  could  have 
had  from  certain  imposts,  must  have  won 
the  admiration  of  these  scholarly  men. 

The  stay  of  the  English  exiles  here  of  some 
twelve  years — the  period  of  the  truce  between 
Holland  and  Spain — was,  though  trying,  no 
doubt  a  good  preparation  for  the  greater 
hardships  they  were  to  endure.  While  Brad- 
ford wove  fustian  and  his  fellow-workers  carded 
wool,  made  hats  and  built  houses,  Brewster 
printed  "  heretical "  books,  and  taught  Eng- 
lish " after  y^  Latin  manner."  The  harmony 
of  their  peaceful  and  industrious  lives  attracted 
many  friends,  until  some  three  hundred  kin- 
dred spirits  joined  John  Robinson  in  his 
prayers  for  "  more  light." 


312  Plymouth 

One  who  soon  proved  himself  to  be  an  in- 
valuable member  of  the  community  was  Ed- 
ward Winslow,  a  highly  educated  gentleman 
from  Worcestershire.  His  energy^  his  diplom- 
acy and  practical  experience  of  the  world, 
his  influence  with  Cromwell  and  other  power- 
ful friends  in  high  places,  removed  many  diffi- 
culties in  the  way  of  the  struggling  colony  that 
was  to  be.  Four  times  he  was  their  chosen 
agent  in  England,  and  was  thrice  elected  gov- 
ernor. 

Here  John  Carver,  a  trusted  adviser,  who 
later  became  the  first  governor  of  New  Ply- 
mouth, was  chosen  deacon  of  their  church. 

Serving  in  the  troops  sent  over  by  Elizabeth 
to  aid  the  Dutch  in  maintaining  the  Protestant 
religion  against  the  Spaniards  was  the  valiant 
soldier,  Myles  Standish,  of  the  Dokesbury 
branch  of  the  Standishes  of  Lancashire,  who 
date  from  the  Conquest.  There  the  beautiful 
Standish  church  still  bears  on  its  buttresses 
the  family  shield — three  standing  dishes  argent 
on  a  field  azure — and  Standish  Hall  is  still  hung 
with  portraits  of  warriors  in  armor,  beruffed 
lawyers  with  pointed  beards,  and  gay  courtiers 
of  the  Queen — the  Roman  Catholic  ancestors 
of  our  plain  fighter  !      Luckily  for    us  all,   he 


313 


314  Plymouth 

cast  in  his  lot  with  the  plucky  workers  he  met 
in  Leyden,  and  his  cheery  presence  and  cour- 
age must  have  been  of  great  service  in  plan- 
ning the  perilous  voyage  on  which  they  were 
about  to  embark. 

For,  as  the  truce  with  Spain  drew  to  a  close, 
and  as  the  older  among-  them  begfan  to  consider 
the  uncertain  future  that  lay  before  their  child- 
ren, they  longed  to  take  refuge  on  some  freer 
soil,  however  far  away.  As  Bradford  writes, 
with  a  courage  at  once  humble  and  sublime  : 

"  Lastly  (and  which  was  not  least)  a  great  hope  and 
inward  zeall  they  had  of  laying  some  good  foundation, 
or  at  least  to  make  some  way  thereunto,  for  y'  propagat- 
ing and  advancing  y*  gospell  of  y'  kingdom  of  Christ  in 
those  remote  parts  of  y'  world  :  yea,  though  they  should 
be  but  even  as  stepping-stones  unto  others  for  y'  per- 
forming of  so  great  a  work." 

So,  "  not  out  of  newfangledness,  or  other  such 
like  giddie  humor,  but  for  sundrie  weightie  and 
solid  reasons,"  the  voyage  was  determined 
upon,  and  the  King's  consent  to  their  emigra- 
tion to  America  sought. 

Winslow  tells  us,  in  his  Bricfe  N^arrative 
of  the  True  Grounds  for  the  First  Planting  of 
New  England,  that  when  their  plans  were  laid 
before   King  James  he  remarked  that  "  it  was 


Plymouth  3^5 

a  good  and  honest  notion,"  and  asking  further 
what  profits  might  arise,  he  was  answered, 
"fishing."  "So  God  have  my  soul,"  he  said, 
*'  so  God  have  my  soul,  't  is  an  honest  trade  ; 
't  was  the  apostles'  own  calling  !  "  And  we 
may  state  here,  notwithstanding  Bradford's 
statement  that  in  the  beginning  "  we  did  lack 
small  hooks,"  New  England,  before  1650,  an- 
nually sent  to  Europe  ^100,000  worth  of  dried 
codfish. 

After  many  weary  negotiations,  a  patent  was 
at  length  obtained,  but  the  future  colonists 
were  refused  a  formal  grant  of  freedom  in  re- 
ligious worship  under  the  King's  broad  seal. 
A  loan  was  made  by  some  seventy  "  Merchant 
Adventurers"  in  England,  and  late  in  July, 
1620,  we  find  our  future  colonists  on  the  quay 
at  Delfthaven,  ready  to  embark  on  the  Speed- 
well. They  are  surrounded  by  their  tearful 
friends,  for  whom,  Winslow  says,  "  they  felt 
such  love  as  is  seldom  found  on  earth." 

Many  of  their  number  are  to  stay  at  Leyden 
under  the  faithful  care  of  John  Robinson, 
whose  touching  farewell  words  Winslow  has 
preserved  for  us  : 

"  he  charged  us  before  God  and  his  blessed  angels  to 
follow  him  no  further  than   he  followed  Christ  ;  and  if 


o 


1 6  Plymouth 


God  should  reveal  anything  to  us  by  any  other  instru- 
ment of  his,  to  be  as  ready  to  receive  it  as  ever  we  were 
to  receive  any  truth  by  his  ministry  ;  for  he  was  very 
confident  the  Lord  had  more  trutli  and  light  yet  to  break 
forth  out  of  his  holy  word." 

This  sad  scene  must  have  been  still  vivid  in 
Bradford's  memory  when  he  wrote  some  ten 
years  later  in  Plymouth  : 

"  truly  dolfull  was  y^  sight  of  that  sade  and  mournful! 
parting  ;  to  see  what  sighs  and  sobbs  and  praires  did 
sound  amongst  them,  what  tears  did  gush  from  every 
eye,  &  pithy  speeches  peirst  each  harte "  ;  "  but  they 
knewe  they  were  pilgrimes,  and  looked  not  much  on 
those  things,  but  lift  up  their  eyes  to  y*  heavens,  their 
dearest  cuntrie,  and  quieted  their  spirits." 

After  a  good  run  with  a  prosperous  wind  they 
found  the  Alayfiowcr  at  Southampton,  but  as 
the  Speedwell  proved  unseaworthy  they  were 
again  delayed,  and  after  putting  in  for  repairs 
to  Dartmouth  and  Plymouth,  the  Mayflower 
finally,  on  September  i6th,  sailed  alone  from 
Plymouth.  Observe  the  group  of  brave  voy- 
acrers  settingf  forth  on  an  unknown  "  sea  of 
troubles,"  trustful  wives  and  children,  manly 
youths  and  blooming  maidens,  as  they  wave  a 
last  good-by  to  dear  Old  England  from  the 
deck  of  the  Mayflower.     Their  leaders  form 


Plymouth  317 

a  notable  band  :  Brewster,  Carver,  Bradford, 
Winslow,  Standish,  the  soul,  the  heart,  the 
head,  the  good  right  hand,  the  flashing  sword, 
well-chosen  instruments  to  unlock  the  frozen 
heart  of  New  England,  and  to  found  there 

Empire  such  as  Spaniard  never  knew." 

Perhaps  George  Herbert,  prince  of  poets, 
referred  to  this  sailing  when  he  wrote  in  his 
Church  Militant  : 

Religion  stands  on  tiptoe  in  our  land, 
Ready  to  pass  to  the  American  strand." 

Of  the  terrible  discomforts  and  dangers  of 
that  perilous  voyage  of  sixty-seven  days  who 
has  not  read  the  pitiful  story  ?  Have  we  not, 
all  of  us,  "come  over  in  the  Mayfiowei^'  and 
rejoiced  with  these  patient  souls  when  at  length, 
one  clear  morning  in  November,  the  shores  of 
Cape  Cod  lay  fair  before  their  expectant  eyes  ? 

Determining  to  put  in  to  Cape  Cod  harbor, 
and  so  to  land  on  a  territory  where  their  patent 
could  confer  no  rights,  the  leaders  of  the  ex- 
pedition, after  consulting  together  in  the  cabin 
of  the  Mayflower,  there  drew  up  and  signed 
the  historic  "Compact"  which  was  to  convert 
the  hundred  voyagers  into  the  founders  of  a 


3^8  Plymouth 

commonwealth.  There  they  solemnly  and 
mutually,  in  the  presence  of  God  and  of  one 
another,  combined  themselves  into  a  civil 
body  politic,  to  frame  and  enact  such  just  and 
equal  laws  from  time  to  time  as  should  be 
thouofht  most  meet  and  convenient  for  the 
general  good  of  the  colony,  unto  which  they 
promised  all  due  submission  and  obedience. 

While  their  sloop-rigg  shallop  of  some 
fifteen  tons  was  made  ready  for  exploration  by 
sea,  those  who  went  at  once  far  into  the  forest 
came  back  with  reports  of  fine  growths  of  oak, 
pine,  sassafras,  juniper,  birch  and  holly,  abund- 
ant grape-vines  and  red  cedar,  which  like  san- 
dalwood 

Sheds  its  perfume  on  the  axe  that  slays  it." 

They  found  excellent  springs,  many  deer 
and  wild-fowl,  and  what  proved  to  be  their 
salvation  in  the  wilderness,  "  divers  faire  Indian 
baskets  filled  with  corn,  which  seemed  to  them 
a  goodly  sight."  For  this  precious  seed-corn 
the  Indian  owners  were  conscientiously  paid 
double  price  some  six  months  later. 

The  weakness  and  illness  natural  after  the 
discomforts  of  such  a  voyage  now  made  them- 
selves felt  in  an  alarminof  manner,  and  an   ex- 


Plymouth  319 

ploring  party  was  hastily  organized  to  select 
the  spot  for  their  final  settlement.  Setting 
forth  in  the  frail  shallop,  a  party  of  eighteen 
picked  men,  after  a  successful  '*  First  En- 
counter"  with  the  Indians,  were  driven  by  a 
furious  gale  to  take  shelter  in  the  lee  of  a  little 
island  lying  in  a  friendly  harbor  to  the  west  of 
their  starting-point.  After  thawing  out  over 
a  good  cedar-wood  fire  and  resting  for  a  night, 
they  explored  the  island  and  repaired  their 
boat.  Of  this  island,  afterward  named  for 
John  Clarke,  mate  of  the  Mayflower,  Bradford 
writes  : 

"  But  though  this  had  been  a  day  and  night  of  much 
trouble  &  danger  unto  them,  yet  God  gave  them  a  morn- 
ing of  comforte  &  refreshing  (as  usually  he  doth  to  his 
children),  for  y*  next  day  was  a  faire  sunshining  day, 
and  they  found  them  sellvs  to  be  on  an  iland  secure 
from  the  Indeans,  wher  they  might  drie  their  stufe,  fixe 
their  peeces,  &  rest  them  selves,  and  gave  God  thanks 
for  his  mercies,  in  their  manifould  deliverances.  And 
this  being  the  last  day  of  y"  weeke,  they  prepared  ther  to 
keepe  y^  Sabath.  On  Munday  they  sounded  the  har- 
bor, and  founde  it  fitt  for  shipping  ;  and  marched  into 
y'  land  and  found  diverse  cornfeilds  and  litle  runing 
brooks,  a  place  (as  they  supposed)  fitt  for  situation  ; 
at  least  it  was  y*  best  they  could  find,  and  y'  season  & 
their  presente  necessitie  made  them  glad  to  accepte 
of  it." 


320  Plymouth 

So,  on  the  21st  day  of  December,  1620,  was 
made  the  now  world-famous  landing  at  Ply- 
mouth, of  which  these  few  words  are  the  humble 
record. 

After  a  week  of  anxious  waiting  their  return 
must  have  been  hailed  with  delight  on  board 
the  Mayflower-,  and  their  good  tidings  warmly 
welcomed.  As  with  all  sails  set  the  good  ship 
made  her  way  into  the  harbor,  eager  eyes 
doubtless  watched  with  joy  the  high  hills  of 
Manomet,  the  wooded  bluffs,  the  shining,  pro- 
tecting beaches,  the  fair  island,  the  low  friendly 
stretch  of  the  mainland  sloping  back  to  the 
picturesque  hillsides,  which  make  Plymouth 
harbor  at  all  times  and  seasons  a  goodly  sight 
to  look  upon.  And  here  at  length  lay  safely 
at  anchor  the 

"...     simple  Mayflower  of  the  salt-sea  mead  !  " 

And  now,  "  Courteous  Reader,"  as  writes 
that  most  faithful  secretary  of  the  Pilgrims, 
Nathaniel  Morton,  in  ]\\?,  N'ew  England  Memor- 
ial (1669),  "that  I  may  not  hold  thee  too 
long  in  the  porch,"  even  in  such  goodly  com- 
pany, I  bid  you  welcome  to  the  Plymouth  of 
to-day.  For  in  the  harbor,  the  sand-dunes, 
the  green  hillsides  and  the  fresh  valleys  and 


fl 


322  Plymouth 

meadows,  in  the  blue  streams  and  ponds,  the 
past  is  inseparably  blended  with  the  present. 
A  small  theatre  it  is,  and  the  actors  were  but 
few  who  played  such  important  rdles  in  the 
building  up  of  a  nation,  but  the  few  memorials 
in  which  that  early  struggle  for  existence  is 
recorded  are  here  lovingly  preserved. 

From  the  Rock  where  they  landed  we  may 
follow  their  weary  footsteps  up  the  steep  as- 
cent of  the  first  street,  now  named  for  Ley- 
den,  their  city  of  refuge,  and  which  may  well 
be  called  the  Via  Sacra  of  Plymouth,  Run- 
ning back  from  the  waterside  to  the  foot  of 
Burial  Hill,  and  parallel  to  the  Town  Brook, 
it  formed  the  centre  of  their  daily  toil,  the  scene 
of  their  early  joys  and  sorrows.  Here  on 
either  hand  were  staked  out  the  homesteads 
for  the  nineteen  first  families  ;  here  with  sturdy 
courage  and  endless  labor  they  dragged  the 
trees  felled  outside  the  clearing,  and  built  their 
rude  houses,  thatching  them  with  swamp-grass. 

The  site  of  their  first  or  "  Common-House  " 
is  now  marked,  and  near  the  lot  assigned  to 
Elder  Brewster  still  we  may  stop  to  drink  from 
the  Pilgrim  Spring:  the  "delicate  water"  is 
fresh  and  sweet  now  as  when  our  thirsty  fore- 
fathers delighted  in  it. 


324  Plymouth 

Crossing  Main  Street,  once  the  King's  high- 
way, we  find  ourselves  in  Town  Square,  under 
the  shade  of  beautiful  old  elm-trees,  planted 
more  than  a  hundred  years  ago.  To  the  north 
was  William  Bradford's  homestead.  Here 
came  all  those  who  sought  advice  and  help  in 
their  sore  need,  and  here  in  1630  were  begun 
those  "  scribbled  writings  "  which,  "  peeced  up 
at  times  of  leasure  afterward,"  are  now  printed 
in  letters  of  gold  in  many  a  faithful  memory  ! 
Here,  perhaps,  or  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Com- 
mon House,  was  concluded  their  first  treaty 
with  a  foreign  power  for  mutual  aid  and  pro- 
tection, when  the  noble  chief  Massasoit,  with 
his  sixty  Indian  braves,  was  led  thither  by 
Samoset,  the  friendly  sachem,  whose  English 
welcome  had  surprised  the  anxious  colonists. 
Through  Samoset  they  learned  that  some  four 
years  before  a  pest  had  devastated  that  region, 
called  by  them  Patuxet.  With  him  came  Tis- 
quantum,  who  became  a  valued  friend  and  in- 
terpreter, teaching  them  to  plant  their  corn 
when  the  oak-leaves  were  the  size  of  a  mouse's 
ear,  and  to  place  three  herring  in  each  hill  with 
the  seed-corn,  which  novel  practice  awakened 
serious  doubts  in  English  minds. 

In  the  autumn  of  1621,  this  was  the  scene 


Plymouth  325 

of  the  first  Thanksgiving  held  in  New  Eng- 
land, when,  their  houses  built,  their  crops  gar- 
nered from  some  thirty  fertile  acres,  their  furs 
and  lumber  safely  stored,  they  made  merry  for 
three  days,  with  Massasoit  and  ninety  Indians 
as  guests.  Even  with  fish,  wild-fowl  and  deer 
in  plenty,  the  good  housewives  must  have  spent 
a  lively  week  of  preparation  for  such  a  feast  ! 

Farther  up  the  slope  was  built,  in  1637,  their 
first  meeting-house,  and  at  the  head  of  the 
Square  now  stands  the  lately  completed  stone 
church  of  the  first  parish.  In  the  belfry 
hangs  the  old  town  bell,  cast  by  Paul  Revere, 
which  for  nearly  a  century  has  had  a  voice  in 
the  affairs  of  the  town. 

Following  the  now  steep  incline,  we  stop  to 
take  breath  on  the  brow  of  the  hill,  the  spot 
so  wisely  chosen  by  Captain  Myles  Standish 
for  the  building  of  the  solid  timber  fort, 
whereon  he  promptly  placed  his  cannon. 

"  Unable  to  speak  for  himself  was  he, 
But  his  guns  spoke  for  him  right  valiantly  !  " 

And  most  persuasive  did  their  voices  prove, 
inspiring  awe  in  the  hearts  of  the  "  salvages  " 
for  many  miles  around  ! 

Here   in   the  shelter  of   the  fort   thev   met 


326  Plymouth 

for  worship  ;  here  their  hymns  of  praise  and 
prayers  for  guidance  arose  in  the  still  air  of 
the  wilderness.  In  four  short  months  one  half 
of  these  brave  souls  had  been  laid  to  rest  on 
Cole's  Hill  by  the  waterside.  And  yet,  when 
one  April  morning  those  who  were  left  to 
mourn  them  stood  here  watching  the  Alay- 
flower  weigh  anchor,  to  fiit  with  her  white  sails 
over  the  blue  sea  which  parted  them  from  Old 
England,  not  one  soul  faltered,  not  one  went 
back  ! 

The  sad  loss  of  their  good  Governor  Carver, 
whose  responsible  place  was  taken  by  William 
Bradford,  and  the  daily  trials  and  hardships 
of  that  first  long  year,  shook  not  their  sturdy 
faith.  Each  day  brought  its  absorbing  task,  and 
when,  one  morning  in  November,  the  sentry  at 
the  fort  shouted,  "  Sail,  ho  !  "  and  the  Fortune 
came  sailing  in  by  the  Gurnet  Nose,  bringing 
the  first  news  from  the  other  side,  they  were 
ready  with  a  return  load  of  lumber,  furs  and 
sassafras  for  the  Merchant  Adventurers.  Of 
this  load,  valued  at  ^500,  Edward  Winslow 
modestly  writes  in  his  letter  to  England  : 
"  Though  it  be  not  much,  yet  it  will  witness 
for  us  that  we  have  not  been  idle,  considering 
the  smallness  of  our  numbers  this  summer." 


Plymouth  327 

Two  years  later,  after  a  trying  season  of 
drought  and  famine,  when,  their  corn  ex- 
hausted, "  ground-nuts,  clams  and  eels  "  were 
their  only  food,  they  still  gave  thanks  to  God 
that  He  had  given  them  of  "  the  abundance  of 
the  seas,  and  of  the  treasures  hid  in  the  sand." 
When  even  the  strongest  men  among  them 
had  grown  weak  for  want  of  food,  and  their 
eyes  were  wearied  with  watching  for  a  friendly 
sail,  the  good  ship  Anne  was  sighted  in  the 
offing.  Dear  relatives  and  friends  brought 
them  timely  succor  and  new  courage  ;  a  sea- 
son of  rejoicing  followed,  and  many  happy 
weddinofs  were  celebrated. 

In  the  Anne,  perhaps,  came  the  Old  Colony 
record-book,  in  which  was  made  the  early  re- 
gistration of  births,  marriages  and  deaths.  The 
first  of  the  laws  therein  enacted,  dating  from 
December  27,  1623,  established  trial  by  jury, 
as  may  still  be  seen  in  the  quaint  handwriting 
of  these  hard-working  heroes.  This  book, 
together  with  the  Charter  of  1629,  curious 
old  papers  concerning  the  division  of  cattle 
brought  over  in  the  Ckaj-iiy  in  1624,  ancient 
deeds  signed  by  the  Indians,  the  original  own- 
ers of  this  our  goodly  heritage,  and  many 
another  time-stained  treasure,  is  now  carefully 


328  Plymouth 

preserved  and  gladly  shown  in  the  Registry  of 
Deeds  in  the  Court  House. 

Looking  to  the  north,  beyond  the  town  of 
Kingston,  lying,  with  its  sweet  rose-gardens, 
on  the  pretty  winding  river  named  for  that 
arch  betrayer,  Captain  Jones,  of  the  May- 
fioiuer,  we  see  Duxbury  and  the  green  slopes 
of  Captain's  Hill,  so  named  in  honor  of  Myles 
Standish,  who  from  the  top  of  his  gray  stone 
monument  still  ofuards  us  in  effisfy.  Linger- 
ing  near  the  fort  and  the  guns  he  loved  so 
well,  he  must  often  have  looked  this  way,  and 
admired  the  fine  position  this  hill  offered  for  a 
homestead.  And  as  with  years  the  colony  grew 
larger,  as  children  came  to  him  and  Barbara, 
and  when  his  first  Company  of  Standish  Guards 
were  in  perfect  training  and  could  be  relied  upon 
to  defend  the  colony  at  need,  he  bought  out 
Winslow's  share  in  the  famous  red  cow,  and  led 
the  way  to  the  new  fields  he  longed  to  conquer. 
There  he  was  soon  followed  by  John  Alden  and 
Priscilla,  the  Brewsters  and  other  families,  and 
at  Marshfield,  near  by,  the  Winslows  became 
their  neighbors.  So  some  eleven  years  after 
the  landing  came  the  first  separation,  which 
though  not  a  wide  one  was  a  sore  grief  to 
their  tender-hearted  eovernor. 


Plymouth  329 

Among  the  now  rare  gravestones  of  the 
seventeenth  century  on  Burial  Hill,  we  look 
in  vain  for  the  most  familiar  names  :  Elder 
Brewster  died  in  1644,  lamented  by  all  the  col- 
ony ;  Edward  Winslow  died  at  sea  in  1655, 
and  in  the  two  years  following  this  sad  loss 
Myles  Standish  and  Governor  Bradford  ended 
their  labors.  So  closed  the  lives  of  these  lead- 
ers of  men.  Descendants,  brave,  wise  and 
strong  like  themselves,  continued  worthily  the 
work  they  had  nobly  begun. 

From  1630,  Plymouth  held  friendly  inter- 
course with  the  Boston  Bay  Colony.  The  ter- 
rors of  the  war  with  Philip,  treacherous  son  of 
the  friendly  Massasoit,  had  united  her  with  the 
neiehborine  colonies  ao^ainst  a  common  foe,  and 
at  length,  after  seventy-one  years  of  nearly  in- 
dependent existence,  we  find  her,  in  1692, 
absorbed,  with  some  regret,  into  the  royal 
province  of  Massachusetts,  but  still  ready  to 
take  her  part  in  public  affairs. 

That  the  role  played  by  her  was  a  worthy 
one,  the  tablets  about  us  testify.  Heroes  of 
the  expedition  against  Louisbourg,  in  1745,  lie 
here  ;  more  than  a  score  of  Plymouth  patriots 
who  served  in  the  Revolution,  and  many  a 
brave  soldier  who  won  his  laurels  in  the  War 


330  Plymouth 

of  1861.  Under  this  stone,  with  Its  quaint 
urn  and  willow-branch,  rests  the  famous  naval 
hero  of  the  Revolutionary  war,  Captain  Simeon 
Sampson,  whose  cousin  Deborah  spun,  dyed, 
and  wove  the  cloth  for  the  suit  in  which  she 
left  home  to  serve  as  a  soldier.  Their  story, 
and  that  of  many  another  hero  and  heroine 
now  lying  here,  have  been  well  told  by  Mrs. 
Jane  Goodwin  Austin. 

Beneath  his  symbolic  scallop-shell  we  read 
the  name  of  Elder  Faunce,  who  knew  the  Pil- 
grims, and,  living  for  ninety-nine  years,  formed 
an  Important  link  between  two  centuries.  The 
stone  consecrated  to  the  memory  of  the  Rev. 
Chandler  Robblns,  who  for  nearly  twoscore 
years  toward  the  close  of  the  last  century  gave 
his  faithful  services  to  the  first  parish,  reminds 
us  that  at  one  time  the  town  fathers  found  It 
advisable  to  request  him  "  not  to  have  more 
horses  grazing  on  Burial  Hill  than  shall  be 
really  necessary  ! " 

Here,  in  old  times,  could  be  had  a  grand 
view  of  the  shipping,  come  from  the  West  In- 
dies and  all  parts  of  the  world  ;  from  here  the 
news  of  many  fatal  shipwrecks  had  been  spread 
through  the  town,  to  rouse  willing  help  for 
suffering   sailors  ;  here,  too,  no    doubt,   men's 


Plymouth  331 

souls  were  often  tempted  to  incur  the  fine  of 
twenty  shillings,  the  cost  of  "telling  a  lie 
about  seeing  a  whale,"  in  those  strict  days 
when  a  plain  lie,  if  "pernicious,"  was  taxed  at 
half  that  price  ! 

Old  Father  Time  with  his  scythe  and  hour- 
glass— symbols  of  his  power — rules  here  over 
seven  generations  ;  but  lingering  while  the  set- 
ting sun  illumines  the  harbor  and  the  surround- 
ing hills  with  the  same  radiance  that  rejoiced 
the  first  comers,  while  Manomet  glows  with  a 
deeper  purple,  and  the  twin  lights  of  the  Gur- 
net shine  out,  we  may  still  feel  in  very  deed 
that 

"  The  Pilgrim  spirit  has  not  fled." 

Turning  from  the  story  of  Plymouth,  as 
written  on  the  lichen-covered  headstones  on 
Burial  Hill,  let  us  wend  our  way  under  the 
shady  elms  of  Court  Street  to  Pilgrim  Hall, 
built  in  1824  by  the  Pilgrim  Society,  instituted 
four  years  earlier.  Here  we  may  trace,  in  the 
many  treasured  reminders  of  their  daily  lives. 
the  annals  of  those  brave  souls  in  whom 

" .     .     .     persuasion  and  belief 
Had  ripened  into  faith,  and  faith  become 
A  passionate  intuition." 


332  Plymouth 

On  broad  canvases  are  portrayed  the  tearful 
embarkation  from  Delfthaven,  the  landing  on 
this  cheerless,  frozen  shore.  Here  are  hung 
charming  pencil  sketches  of  Scrooby  and  Aus- 
terfield,  and  many  interesting  portraits  :  Dr. 
Thatcher,  the  venerable  secretary  of  the  Pil- 
grim Society,  and  author  of  a  charming  his- 
tory of  Plymouth  ;  the  Rev,  James  Kendall, 
for  nearly  threescore  years  the  beloved  minis- 
ter of  the  First  Church  ;  Gov.  Edward  Winslow 
and  his  son  Josiah  ;  Gen.  John  Winslow,  who 
by  royal  command  in  1755  helped  to  drive 
from  their  homes  the  French  Acadians  ;  Dea- 
con Ephraim  Spooner,  whose  "  lining  out  "  of 
the  old  hymns  formed  an  impressive  part  of 
"  Anniversary  Day  "  ;  Daniel  Webster,  who 
lived  in  Marshfield,  and  whose  glowing  oration 
of  1820,  in  honor  of  the  two  hundredth  anni- 
versary ^  of  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  was 
epoch-making  in  Plymouth  annals. 

Among  the  many  priceless  books  and  docu- 
ments here  we  find  the  lately  acquired  Specu- 
lum Europcs  (1605)  by  Sir  Edwin  Sandys, 
the  active  friend  of  our  Separatists  in  England  , 

'  The  illustratii)n  shown  on  page  335  is  from  a  pen-and-ink  copy  of  a 
quaint  old  painting  on  glass  from  China,  probably  in  1S20.  In  that 
country  a  set  of  china  with  this  design  as  decoration  was  made  for 
this  Plymouth  celebration. 


334 


Plymouth 


two  autographs  of  John  Robinson  render  this 
volume  of  special  interest.  A  facsimile  of  the 
Bradford  manuscript  also  is  here,  and  a  Confu- 
tation of  the  Rheniists  Translation,  printed  by 
Brewster  in  Leyden,  in  1618.  Among  the 
old  Bibles  worn  by  hands  seeking  for  guidance 
and  comfort  is  one  belonging  to  John  Alden, 
dated  1620.  Here  also  are  a  copy  of  Robert 
Cushman's  memorable  sermon  on  "  The  Dan- 
ger of  Self-love,"  delivered  by  him  in  Plymouth 
in  1621  ;  one  of  the  seven  precious  original 
copies  of  Mottrfs  Relation  the  journal  writ- 
ten by  Bradford  and  Winslow  in  1620-21,  and 
so  promptly  printed  in  London  in  1622  ;  one 
of  the  four  copies  of  Eliot's  Indian  Bible 
(1685)  ;  the  Patent  of  162 1,  granted  our  colo- 
nists by  the  New  England  Company,  and  the 
oldest  state  paper  in  the  United  States. 

A  large  copy  of  the  seal 
of  the  colony,  in  hand- 
somely carved  oak,  reminds 
us  that  the  original  seal 
was  stolen  in  the  days  of 
Andros.  Its  appropriate 
motto,  "  Patrum  pietate 
ortum,  filiorum  virtute  ser- 
vandum,"    may    be    found 


THE  OLD  COLONY  SEAL. 


33^  Plymouth 

used  as  a  heading  of  the  first  PlymoiitJi  Jour- 
nai,  pubHshed  by  Nathaniel  Coverly  in  1785, 
of  which  one  file  is  preserved  in  the  library  of 
rare  old  books.  Here  are  the  Original  Re- 
cords of  the  Old  Colony  Club,  founded  in  i  769, 
but  dissolved  four  years  later  when  party  feel- 
ing ran  high  between  the  Whigs  and  Tories. 
Its  worthy  members  first  instituted  the  cele- 
bration of  "  Forefathers'  Day,"  and  here  we 
may  read  the  bill  of  fare  of  their  first  dinner, 
"dressed  in  the  plainest  manner,"  beginning 
with  "a  large  baked  Indian  whortleberry  pud- 
ding," "  a  dish  of  Succotash,"  "  Clamms,"  etc. 
The  Indian  dishes,  succotash  and  nokake,  and 
the  five  parched  corns  which  recall  the  time 
when  their  last  pint  of  corn  was  divided  among 
them,  still  form  part  of  the  "twenty-second" 
dinner  of  every  faithful  descendant  ! 

Here  the  sword  of  the  truculent  Myles  Stan- 
dish  lies  at  rest,  and  beside  it,  in  lighter  vein,  a 
bit  of  the  quilt  that  belonged  to  his  wife  Rose, 
and  a  sampler  skilfully  embroidered  by  his 
daughter  Lora.  Between  the  ample  armchairs 
in  which  Governor  Carver  and  Elder  Brewster 
must  have  pondered  over  many  a  weighty  pro- 
blem of  government  for  the  people  and  by  the 
people,  is  the  closely  woven  little  Dutch  cradle 


Plymouth 


?>Z7 


in  which  Peregrine  White,  that  most  youthful 
of  voyagers,  was  rocked  to  sleep.  The  large 
hole  worn  in  the  foot  of  the  cradle  suggests 
pleasantly  that  the  rosy  toes  of  the  sturdy  baby 
colonists  made  early  for  freedom  !       Perhaps 


The  fuller  cradle. 


the  tiny  leathern  ankle-ties,  hardly  four  inches 
in  length,  which  belonged  to  Josiah  Winslow 
— this  was  long  before  they  thought  of  making 
him  governor — had  a  hand,  or  rather  a  foot,  in 
that  bombardment !  Near  the  shoes  is  a  dainty 
salt-cellar  of  blue  and  white  enamel,  delicately 
painted  with  pink  and  yellow  roses,  suggestive 
of  fine  linen  and  pleasant  hospitality.  Here 
too  are 


338 


Plymouth 


"  The  wheels  where  they  spun 
In  the  pleasant  light  of  the  sun," 

those  anxious,  lonely  housewives,  waiting  for 
their  good  men  to  return  from  dangerous  ex- 
peditions in  the 
forest  or  on  the 
sea.  Thus  varied 
was  the  freight  of 
the  Mayfiower. 

As  we  walk 
through  the  lively 
main  street  of  the 
town,  we  must  stop 
to  admire  the  fine 
gambrel  roof  of 
the  old  house 
where  lived  James 
Warren,  that  active  patriot,  who  became  pre- 
sident of  the  Provincial  Congress,  and  whose 
wife,  Mercy  Otis  Warren,  wrote  the  "  rousing 
word "  which  kindled  many  a  heart  in  Re- 
volutionary days.  The  line  of  fine  lindens 
just  beyond,  as  they  rustle  in  the  cool  sea- 
breeze,  could  whisper  many  a  charming  tale  of 
lovely  dames  and  stately  men,  of  scarlet  cloaks 
and  powdered  wigs  they  have  watched  pass  by 
under  their  shading  branches,  of  treasures  of 


AN    OLD  ENGLISH  SPINNINQ-WHEEL. 


Plymouth 


339 


old  china  and  old  silver,  of  blue  tiles  and  claw- 
footed  furniture,  of  Copley  portraits  now  packed 
off  to  the  great  city,  and  of  many  changes  come 
about  since  they  came  here  as  young  trees 
from  Nova  Scotia,  in  a  raisin-box. 

Overlooking  the  blue  water  stands  the  old 
Winslow  house,  the  solid  frame  of  which  came 
from  England  in  1754.  Under  its  spreading 
lindens,  through  the  fine  colonial  doorway  so 


Copyright  by  A.  S.  Burl.ank. 

THE  DOTEN   HOUSE,   1660. 

THE   OLDEST    HOUSE    IN    PLYMOUTH. 


beautifully  carved,  many  distinguished  guests 
have  passed,  and  here  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson 
was  married  to  Lydia  Jackson,  who  was  born 
in  the  picturesque  house  just  beyond,  almost 
hidden  in  trees  and  vines. 


340  Plymouth 

A  drive  toward  the  south  will  take  us  by- 
some  of  the  oldest  houses.  From  the  one  with 
a  dyke  in  front,  Adoniram  Judson,  the  famous 
Baptist  missionary,  took  his  departure  for  Bur- 
mah.  His  devoted  sister  then  vowed  that  no 
one  should  cross  the  threshold  until  his  return, 
and  the  door-step  was  taken  away.  Grass  grew 
over  the  pathway,  and  the  front  door  remained 
closed,  for  he  died  at  sea,  in  1850. 

As  we  pass  the  handsome  new  building  of 
the  High  School,  it  is  good  to  remember,  in 
this  Plymouth  of  eight  thousand  inhabitants, 
paying  thirty-four  thousand  dollars  for  last 
year's  "schooling,"  that  in  1672  it  was  decided 
that  Plymouth's  school,  supported  by  the  rents 
of  her  southerly  common-lands,  was  entitled  to 
£2)3^  the  fishing  excise  from  the  Cape,  offered 
to  any  town  which  would  keep  d^frcc  colonial 
school,  classical  as  well  as  elementary.  And 
in  that  free  school  began  an  early  struggle  of 
the  three  R's  aofainst  Latin  and  Greek.  From 
Plymouth  went  Nathaniel  Brewster,  a  graduate 
of  Harvard's  first  class  of  1642,  and  the  first 
of  a  long  line  of  Plymouth  students  to  enter 
Harvard. 

Past  the  blue  Eel  River,  flowing  gently 
through  shining  green  meadows  to  the  sea,  we 


Plymouth  341 

may  drive  along  quiet  roads  in  Plymouth 
Woods,  under  sweet  pines  and  sturdy  oaks, 
by  the  shore  of  many  a  calm  pond,  sparkling 
in  its  setting  of  white  beach  sand.  We  cross 
old  Indian  trails,  perhaps,  and  skirt  acre  after 
acre  of  level  cranberry-bogs,  pink  and  white, 
like  a  sheet  of  delicate  sprig-muslin,  when  in 
bloom,  and  bright  with  the  crimson  fruit  in 
early  autumn.  In  these  woods  in  their  season 
bloom  sweet  mayflowers,  the  rare  rhodora,  the 
sabbatia,  sundew  and  corema,  and  there  many 
another  treasure  may  be  found  by  those  who 
know  how  to  seek  ! 

When  these  forests  were  first  explored,  an 
enterprising  member  of  the  Mayflower  s  crew, 
climbing  a  high  tree  to  see  how  the  land  lay, 
saw  shining  before  him  a  blue  sheet  of  water 
which  he  took  to  be  the  ocean,  and  this  was 
called  after  him  "  Billington's  Sea."  Following 
the  shore  of  this  lake,  through  the  leafy  paths 
of  Morton's  Park,  we  come  upon  the  source  of 
the  famous  Town  Brook,  which  with  its  hon- 
orable record  of  two  centuries'  supply  of  ale- 
wives  has  always  played  an  important  part  in 
the  town's  annals,  helping  to  grind  the  Pil- 
grims' first  grists  in  1636,  and  now  lending  its 
busy  aid  in    turning    complicated  machinery. 


342 


Plymouth 


In  the  fields  on  either  side — the  hunting- 
ofroLinds  of  the  banished  race  who  once  re- 
joiced  in  their  possession — are  still  found  the 
beautifully  worked  Indian  arrow-heads  and 
hatchets  ;  here  the  smoke  arose  from  their  wig-- 


.;1^::fi'-*«*F^r>i:? 


PfiV'TiCl-' 


-^■'i; 


^-h 


^>^*r 


Ch; 


THE  GRAVE  OF  DR.   FRANCIS  LE  BARRAN,  THE    NAMELESS  NOBLEMAN. 

warns  ;  here  they  often  paddled  past  in  their 
swift  canoes,  and  here,  perhaps,  were  shot  the 
five  deer  that  formed  their  offering  in  the  first 
New  England  Thanksgiving. 

But  the  manifold  charms  of   Plymouth  and 


Plymouth 


343 


Plymouth  Woods  must  be  seen  and  felt  on  the 
soil  whence  they  sprung  !  So  in  the  hope  that 
the  "Courteous  Reader"  to  whom  they  are 
still  unfamiliar  may  care  to  verify  this  truthful 
statement,  we  leave  in  brief  and  imperfect  out- 
line this  story  of  the  Old  Colony,  whither 
"  they  wente  weeping  and  carried  precious 
seeds  ;  but  they  shall  returne  with  joye  and 
bring  their  sheaves." 


CAPE  COD  TOWNS 

FROM  PROVINCETOWN   TO   FALMOUTH 
By  KATHARINE  LEE  BATES 

CAPE  COD,"  wrote  Thoreau,  "is  the 
bared  and  bended  arm  of  Massachu- 
setts ;  the  shoulder  is  at  Buzzard's  Bay  ;  the 
elbow,  or  crazy-bone,  at  Cape  Mallebarre  ;  the 
wrist  at  Truro  ;  and  the  sandy  fist  at  Province- 
town — behind  which  the  State  stands  on  her 
guard." 

This  sandy  fist  curls  toward  the  wrist  in 
such  fashion  as  to  form  a  semicircular  harbor, 
famous  as  the  New  World  haven  which  first 
gave  shelter  to  the  Mayfioiver  and  her  sea- 
worn  company.  On  the  21st  of  November 
(by  our  modern  reckoning),  1620,  the  Pilgrims, 
after  their  two  bleak  months  of  ocean,  cast 
anchor  here,  rejoicing  in  the  sight  and  smell 
of  "oaks,  pines,  juniper,  sassafras  and  other 
sweet  wood."      Here  they  signed   their  mem- 

345 


346  Cape  Cod  Towns 

orable  compact,  forming  themselves  into  a 
"  civil  body  politic  "  and  covenanting  with  one 
another,  as  honest  Englishmen,  to  "  submit  to 
such  government  and  governors  as  we  should 
by  common  consent  agree  to  make  and  choose." 
Upon  the  adoption  of  this  simple  and  signifi- 
cant constitution,  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  still  on 
board  the  MayJlowe7'  in  Provincetown  harbor, 
proceeded  to  set  in  motion  the  machinery  of 
their  little  republic,  for  "  after  this,"  wrote 
Bradford,  "they  chose,  or  rather  confirmed, 
Mr.  John  Carver  (a  man  godly  and  well  ap- 
proved amongst  them)  their  Governor  for  one 
year."  That  same  day  a  scouting  party  went 
ashore  and  brought  back  a  fragrant  boatload 
of  red  cedar  for  firewood,  with  a  goodly  report 
of  the  place. 

These  stout-hearted  Pilgrims  were  not  the 
first  Europeans  to  set  foot  on  Cape  Cod. 
Legends  of  the  Vikings  which  drift  about  the 
low  white  dunes  are  as  uncertain  as  the  shift- 
ing sands  themselves,  and  the  French  and 
Florentine  navigators  who  sailed  along  the 
North  American  coast  in  the  first  half  of  the 
sixteenth  century  may  have  done  no  more 
than  sight  this  sickle  of  land  between  sea  and 
bay,  but  there  are  numerous  records  of  Fng- 


348  Cape  Cod  Towns 

lish,  French  and  Dutch  visits  within  the  last 
twenty  years  before  the  coming  of  the  May- 
flower.  It  may  be  that  no  less  a  mariner  than 
Sir  Francis  Drake  was  the  first  of  the  English 
to  tread  these  shores,  but  that  distinction  is  gen- 
erally allowed  to  Captain  Bartholomew  Gos- 
nold,  who  made  harbor  here  in  1602  and  was 
"  so  pestered  with  codfish  "  that  he  gave  the 
Cape  the  name,  "which,"  said  Cotton  Mather, 
"  it  will  never  lose  till  shoals  of  codfish  be 
seen  swimming  upon  the  tops  of  its  highest 
hills."  Gosnold  traded  with  the  Indians  for 
furs  and  sassafras  root,  and  was  followed  the 
next  year  by  Martin  Pring,  seeking  a  cargo  of 
this  latter  commodity,  then  held  precious  in 
pharmacy.  Within  the  next  four  years  three 
French  explorers  touched  at  the  Cape,  and  a 
French  colony  was  projected,  but  came  to 
nothing.  The  visit  of  Henry  Hudson,  too, 
left  no  traces.  In  1614  that  rover  of  land  and 
sea,  Captain  John  Smith,  took  a  look  at  Cape 
Cod,  which  impressed  him  only  as  a  "  headland 
of  hills  of  sand,  overgrown  with  scrubby  pines, 
hurts  [huckleberries]  and  such  trash,  but  an 
excellent  harbor  for  all  weathers."  After 
Smith's  departure.  Hunt,  his  second  in  com- 
mand, enticed  a  group  of  Nauset   Indians  on 


350  Cape  Cod  Towns 

shipboard,  carried  them  off,  and  sold  them  into 
slavery  at  Malaga,  Spain,  for  twenty  pounds  a 
man.  As  a  consequence  of  this  crime,  the 
Indians  grew  suspicious  and  revengeful,  but 
nevertheless  an  irregular  trade  was  maintained 
with  them  by  passing  vessels,  until  the  pesti- 
lence that  raged  among  the  red  men  of  the 
region  from  1616  to  16 19  interrupted  com- 
munication. 

The  Pilgrims  tarried  in  Provincetown  har- 
bor nearly  a  month.  The  compact  had  been 
signed,  anchor  dropped  and  the  reconnoissance 
made  on  a  Saturday.  The  Sunday  following, 
the  first  Pilgrim  Sabbath  in  America,  was  de- 
voutly kept  with  prayer  and  praise  on  board 
the  Mayflower,  but  the  next  morning  secular 
activities  began.  The  men  carried  ashore  the 
shallop  which  had  been  brought  over  in  sec- 
tions between-decks  and  proceeded  to  put  it 
together,  while  the  women  bundled  up  the 
soiled  linen  of  the  voyage  and  inaugurated  the 
first  New  England  Monday  by  a  grand  wash- 
ing on  the  beach.  On  Wednesday,  Myles 
Standish  mustered  a  little  army  of  sixteen 
men,  each  armed  with  musket,  sword  and 
corselet,  and  led  them  gallantly  up  the  wooded 
cape,  "  thorou  boughes  and  bushes,"  nearly  as 


Cape  Cod  Towns  351 

far  as  the  present  town  of  Wellfleet.  After 
two  days  the  explorers  returned  with  no  worse 
injury  than  briar-scratched  armor,  bringing- 
word  of  game  and  water-springs,  ploughed 
land  and  burial-mounds.  William  Bradford 
showed  the  noose  of  the  deer-trap,  a  "  very 
pretie  devise,"  that  had  caught  him  by  the  leg, 
and  two  of  the  sturdiest  Pilgrims  bore,  slung 
on  a  staff  across  their  shoulders,  a  kettle  of 
corn.  As  the  few  natives  whom  the  party  had 
met  fled  from  them,  the  corn  had  been  taken 
on  credit  from  a  buried  hoard.  The  following- 
year  that  debt  was  scrupulously  paid,  but  a 
custom  had  been  established  which  still  pre- 
vails with  certain  summer  residents  on  the  Cape, 
who  are  said  to  make  a  practice  of  leaving  their 
grocery  bills  over  until  the  next  season. 

As  soon  as  the  shallop  could  be  rioated,  a 
larger  expedition  was  sent  by  water  along  the 
south  coast  to  seek  a  permanent  settlement. 
Through  wind  and  snow  the  Pilgrim  Fathers 
made  their  way  up  to  Pamet  River,  in  Truro, 
the  limit  of  the  earlier  journey.  They  did  not 
succeed  in  agreeing  upon  a  fit  site  for  the 
colony,  but  they  sought  out  the  corn  deposit 
and,  breaking  the  frozen  ground  with  their 
swords,  secured  ten  bushels  more  of  priceless 


352  Cape  Cod  Towns 

seed  for  the  springtime.  On  the  return  of  the 
second  expedition  there  was  anxious  discussion 
about  the  best  course  to  pursue.  Some  were 
for  setthng  on  the  Cape  and  hving  by  the  fish- 
eries, pointing  out,  to  emphasize  their  argu- 
ments, the  whales  that  sported  every  day  about 
the  anchored  ship  ;  but  the  Pilgrims  were  of 
agricultural  habit  and  tradition  and  had  reason 
enough  just  then  to  be  weary  of  the  sea.  The 
situation  was  critical.  "  The  heart  of  winter 
and  unseasonable  weather,"  wrote  Bradford, 
"was  come  upon  us."  The  gradual  slope  of 
the  beach  made  it  always  necessary  to  "  wade 
a  bow-shoot  or  two  "  in  oroino-  ashore  from  the 
Mayflower,  and  these  icy  foot-baths  were  largely 
responsible  for  the  "  vehement  coughs  "  from 
which  hardly  one  of  the  company  was  exempt. 
Once  more,  on  the  i6th  of  December, 
the  shallop  started  forth  to  find  a  home  for 
the  Pilgrims.  Ten  colonists,  including  Carver, 
Bradford  and  Standish,  together  with  a  few 
men  of  the  ship's  crew,  volunteered  for  this 
service.  It  was  so  cold  that  the  sleety  spray 
glazed  doublet  and  jerkin  "and  made  them 
many  times  like  coats  of  iron."  The  voyagers 
landed  within  the  present  limits  of  Eastham  or 
Orleans,  where,  hard  by  the  shore,  a  camp  was 


Cape  Cod  Towns  353 

roughly  barricaded.  One  day  passed  safely 
in  exploration,  but  at  dawn  of  the  second, 
when,  "  after  prayer,"  the  English  sat  about 
their  camp-fire  at  breakfast,  "  a  great  and 
strange  cry  "  cut  the  mist,  and  on  the  instant 
Indian  arrows,  headed  with  deer-horn  and 
eagles'  claws,  whizzed  about  their  heads.  But 
little  Captain  Standish  was  not  to  be  caught 
napping.  "  Having  a  snaphance  ready,"  he 
fired  in  direction  of  the  war-whoop.  His  com- 
rades supported  him  manfully,  their  friends  in 
the  shallop,  themselves  beset,  shouted  encour- 
agement, and  the  savages,  gliding  back  among 
the  trees,  melted  into  "  the  dark  of  the  morn- 
ing." After  this  taste  of  Cape  Cod  courtesy, 
the  Pilgrim  Fathers  can  hardly  be  blamed  for 
taking  to  their  shallop  again  and  plunging  on, 
in  a  stiff  gale,  through  the  toppling  waves, 
until,  with  broken  rudder  and  mast  split  in 
three,  they  reached  a  refuge  in  the  harbor  of 
Plymouth. 

When  the  adventurers  returned  to  the  May- 
flower with  glad  tidings  that  a  resting-place 
was  found  at  last,  the  historian  of  the  party, 
William  Bradford,  had  to  learn  that  during 
his  absence  his  wife  had  fallen  from  the 
vessel's  side  and  perished  in  those  December 


354  Cape  Cod  Towns 

waters.  Three  more  of  the  colonists  died  in 
that  first  haven,  and  there  httle  Peregrine 
White  began  his  earthly  peregrinations.  In 
view  of  all  these  occurrences, — the  signing  of 
the  compact  in  Provincetown  harbor,  the  first 
landing  of  the  Pilgrims  on  the  tip  of  Cape  Cod, 
the  explorations,  the  first  deaths  and  the  first 
birth, — it  would  seem  that  Provincetown  is 
fairly  entitled  to  a  share  of  those  historic  hon- 
ors which  are  lavished,  none  too  freely,  but, 
perhaps,  too  exclusively,  upon  Plymouth. 

When  the  Mayjioiver  sailed  away,  carrying 
William  Bradford  and  his  tablets,  the  beauti- 
ful harbor  and  its  circlincr  shores  were  left  to  a 
long  period  of  obscurity.  Fishers,  traders  and 
adventurers  of  many  nations  came  and  went 
on  their  several  errands,  but  these  visits  left 
little  trace.  The  Plymouth  colonists,  mean- 
while, did  not  forget  their  first  landing-point, 
but  returned  sometimes,  in  the  fishing  season, 
for  cod,  bass  and  mackerel,  always  claiming 
full  rights  of  ownership.  This  claim  rested 
not  only  on  their  original  brief  occupation, 
but  on  formal  purchase  from  the  Indians,  in 
1654,  or  earlier,  the  payment  being  "  2  brasse 
kettles  six  coates  twelve  houes  1 2  axes  1 2 
knives  and  a  box."     In  process  of  time,  as  the 


35^  Cape  Cod  Towns 

English  settlers  gradually  pushed  down  the 
Cape,  a  few  hovels  and  curing-sheds  rose 
on  the  harbor  shore,  but  the  land  was  owned 
by  Plymouth  Colony  until  Massachusetts  suc- 
ceeded to  the  title.  These  Province  Lands 
were  made  a  district,  in  the  charge  of  Truro, 
in  1714,  but  in  1727  the  "Precinct  of  Cape 
Cod "  was  set  off  from  Truro,  and  estab- 
lished, under  the  name  of  Provincetown,  as  a 
separate  township.  It  was  even  then  merely 
a  fishing-hamlet,  with  a  fluctuating  population, 
which  by  1750  had  almost  dwindled  away. 
In  Revolutionary  times,  it  had  only  a  score  of 
dwelling-houses,  and  its  two  hundred  inhabit- 
ants were  defenseless  before  the  British,  whose 
men-of-war  rode  proudly  in  the  harbor.  One 
of  these,  the  Somerset,  while  chased  by  a  French 
fleet  on  the  Back  Side,  as  the  Atlantic  coast 
of  the  Cape  is  called,  struck  on  Peaked  Hill 
bars,  and  the  waves,  taking  part  with  the  re- 
bels, flung  the  helpless  hulk  far  up  the  beach. 
Stripped  by  "a  plundering  gang"  from  Pro- 
vincetown and  Truro,  the  frigate  lay  at  the 
mercy  of  the  sands,  and  they  gradually  hid  her 
even  from  memory  ;  but  the  strong  gales  and 
high  tides  of  1886  tore  that  burial-sheet  aside, 
and  brought  the   blackened  timbers  again   to 


Cape  Cod  Towns  357 

the  light  of  day.  The  grim  old  ship,  tormented 
by  relic-hunters,  peered  out  over  the  sea,  look- 
ing from  masthead  to  masthead  for  the  Union 
Jack,  and,  disgusted  with  what  she  saw,  dived 
once  more  under  her  sandy  cover,  where  the 
beach-grass  now  grows  over  her. 

Since  the  Revolution,  Provincetown  has 
steadily  progressed  in  numbers  and  prosperity, 
until  to-day,  with  over  four  thousand  five 
hundred  inhabitants,  it  is  the  banner  town  of 
the  Cape.  During  this  period  of  develop- 
ment, the  Province  Lands,  several  thousand 
acres  in  extent,  naturally  became  a  subject  of 
dispute.  Old  residents  had  fallen  into  a  way 
of  buying  and  selling  the  sites  on  which  they 
had  built  homes  and  stores,  as  if  the  land  were 
theirs  in  legal  ownership.  Five  years  ago, 
however,  the  General  Court  virtually  limited 
State  ownership  to  the  waste  tracts  in  the 
north  and  west  of  the  township,  leaving  the 
squatters  in  possession  of  the  harbor-front. 
"  The  released  portion  of  the  said  lands," 
stated  the  Harbor  and  Land  Commissioners 
in  their  report  of  1893,  "is  about  955  acres 
and  includes  the  whole  inhabited  part  of  the 
town  of  Provincetown." 

The  present   Provincetown   is  well  worth  a 


358  Cape  Cod  Towns 

journey.  From  High  Pole  Hill,  a  bluff  seventy 
feet  high  in  the  rear  of  the  populated  district, 
one  gazes  far  out  over  blue  waters,  crossed 
with  cloud-shadows  and  flecked  with  fishing- 
craft.  Old  sea-captains  gather  here  with  spy- 
glasses to  make  out  the  shipping  ;  bronzed 
sailor-boys  lie  in  the  sun  and  troll  snatches  of 
song  ;  young  mothers  of  dark  complexion  and 
gay-colored  dress  croon  lullabies,  known  in 
Lisbon  and  Fayal,  over  sick  babies  brought 
to  the  hilltop  for  the  breezy  air  ;  the  very  par- 
rot that  a  black-eyed  urchin  guards  in  a  group 
of  admiring  playmates  talks  "  Portugee." 
Leanine  over  the  railinsf,  one  looks  down  the 
bushy  slope  of  the  blufT  to  the  curious  huddle 
of  houses  at  its  base.  Out  from  the  horse- 
shoe bend  of  shore,  run  thin  tongues  of  wharf 
and  jetty.  Front  Street  follows  the  water- 
line,  a  seaport  variety  of  outfitting  stores  and 
shops,  mingled  with  hotels,  fish-flakes,  ship- 
yards and  the  like,  backing  on  the  beach,  with 
the  dwelling-houses  opposite  facing  the  harbor- 
view.  Back  Street  copies  the  curve  of  Front, 
and  the  two  are  joined  by  queer,  irregular 
little  crossways,  that  take  the  abashed  wayfarer 
close  under  people's  windows  and  along  the 
very    borders    of    their  gardens   and    poultry- 


Cape  Cod  Towns 


159 


yards.  Althoucrh  nearly  all  of  the  buildings 
stand  on  one  or  the  other  of  these  main 
streets,  there  are  bunches  and  knots  of  houses 
in  sheltered  places,  looking  as  if  the  blast  had 
blown  them  into  accidental  nooks.      In  creneral 


WHARVES  AT   FROVINCETOWN. 


these  houses  are  built  close  and  low,  tucked 
in  under  one  another's  elbows,  but  here  and 
there  an  independent  cottage  thrusts  its  sharp- 
roofed  defiance  into  the  very  face  of  the 
weather. 

Up  and  down  the  sandy  knolls  behind  the 


360  Cape  Cod  Towns 

streets  straggle  populous  graveyards,  where 
one  may  read  the  fortunes  of  Provincetown 
more  impressively,  if  less  precisely,  than  in 
the  census  reports.  Where  the  goodly  old 
Nathaniels  and  Shubaels  and  Abrahams  and 
Jerushas  rest,  a  certain  decorum  of  green  sod- 
ding and  white  headstone  is  maintained,  de- 
spite the  irreligious  riot  of  the  winds.  The 
Catholic  burial-ofround,  too,  is  not  uncared  for 
in  its  Irish  portion.  Marble  and  granite  monu- 
ments implore  "  Lord  have  mercy  on  the  soul  " 
of  some  Burke  or  Ryan  or  McCarty,  but  the 
Portuguese,  wanderers  from  the  Cape  Verde 
Islands  and  the  Azores,  sleep  the  sleep  of 
strangers,  with  no  touch  of  tenderness  or 
beauty  about  their  dreary  lodging.  Only  here 
and  there  a  little  Jacinto  or  Manuel  or  Antone 
has  his  short  mound  set  about  with  fragments 
of  clam-shell,  as  if  in  children's  play.  Some 
lots  are  enclosed,  the  black  posts  with  rounded 
tops  looking  like  monastic  sentries,  and  a  few 
headboards,  with  the  painted  name  already 
rain-washed  out  of  recognition,  lean  away  from 
the  wind.  In  the  centre  of  this  gaunt  grave- 
yard, where  the  roaring  Atlantic  storms  tear  up 
even  the  coarse  tufts  of  beach-grass,  a  great 
gray    cross    of   wood,    set    in    a    hill   of  sand, 


Cape  Cod  Towns  361 

spreads  weather-beaten  arms.  The  guardian- 
ship of  the  Church  and  the  fehowship  of  the 
sea  these  Portuguese  fisherfolk  brought  with 
them,  and  as  yet  America  has  given  them 
nothing  dearer. 

The  Portuguese  constitute  a  large  proportion 
of  the  foreign  element  in  Barnstable  County, 
where  nearly  nine  tenths  of  the  people  are  of 
English  descent.  The  protruding  tip  of  Cape 
Cod  easily  catches  such  ocean  drift  as  these 
Western  Islanders,  and  they  have  made  their 
way  as  far  up  the  Cape  as  Falmouth,  wlu-re  they 
watch  their  chance  to  buy  old  homesteads  at 
low  rates.  They  are  natural  farmers  and  even 
in  Harwich  and  Truro  divide  their  labors  be- 
tween sea  and  land.  But  it  is  in  Province- 
town  that  these  swart-faced  strangers  most  do 
congregate,  gardening  wherever  a  garden  is 
possible,  tending  the  fish-weirs,  working,  when 
herring  are  plenty,  in  the  canning  factories, 
and  almost  monopolizing  the  fresh  fishing  in- 
dustry. Even  those  who  are  most  thrifty, 
building  homes  and  buying  vessels,  wear  the 
look  of  aliens,  and  some,  when  their  more 
active  years  are  over,  gather  up  their  savings 
and  return  to  the  Azores  ;  but  the  raven-haired 
o-irls  are  beL>inning  to  listen  to  Yankee  wooers, 


362  Cape  Cod  Towns 

and  the  next  century  may  see  the  process  of 
amalgamation  well  under  way.  Already  these 
new  Pilgrims  have  tasted  so  much  of  the  air  of 
freedom  as  to  wax  a  little  restive  under  the 
authority  of  their  fiery,  devoted  young  priest, 
who  upbraids  them  with  his  last  expletive  for 
their  shortcomings  as  energetically  as  he  aids 
them  with  his  last  dollar  in  their  distress. 

In  the  general  aspect  of  the  port,  it  is  as 
true  to-day  as  when,  in  1808,  the  townspeople 
petitioned  for  a  suspension  of  the  embargo, 
that  their  interest  is  "  almost  totally  in  fish  and 
vessels."  A  substantial  citizen  keeps  his  boat 
as  naturally  as  an  inlander  would  keep  his 
carriage.  Any  loiterer  on  the  street  can  lend 
a  hand  with  sweep-seine  or  jibstay,  but  the 
harnessing  of  a  horse  is  a  mystery  known  to 
few.  In  1 819,  there  was  but  one  horse  owned 
in  Provincetown,  and  that  "an  old,  white  one 
with  one  eye."  In  point  of  fact,  however,  the 
fortunes  of  Provincetown  seem  to  demand,  at 
present,  some  further  support  than  the  fisher- 
ies. It  is  believed  that,  by  dint  of  capital, 
labor  and  irrigation,  more  could  be  gained 
from  the  soil,  and  that  the  advantages  of  the 
place  as  a  summer  resort  might  be  developed. 
The   whaling    business    has    greatly   declined 


Cape  Cod  Towns 


3^3 


since  the  discovery  of  petroleum,  the  mackerel 
have  forsaken  their  old  haunts,  and  even  cod- 
fishing,  in  which  Provincetown  long  stood  sec- 
ond to  Gloucester,  is  on  the  wane.  Wharves 
and  marine  railways  are  falling  into  ruin,  and 
the  natives  of  the  old  Cape  seek  a  subsistence 


PROVINCETOWN   IN   1839. 

FROM    AN    OLD    DRAWING. 


in  Western  ranches  and  crowded  cities,  leaving 
their  diminished  home  industries  to  the  immi- 
grants. Still  twoscore  or  so  of  vessels  go  to 
the  Grand  Banks,  and  as  many  more  engage 
in  the  fresh  fishing.  Emulous  tales  do  these 
fishermen  tell  of  quick  trips  and  large  catches, 
for  example  the  clipper  Julia  Costa,  under  a 
Portuguese  skipper,  which  set  sail  at  six  in  the 
morning  for  fishing-grounds  about  fifteen  miles 


364  Cape  Cod  Towns 

northeast  of  Highland  Light,  took  fifteen  thou- 
sand pounds  of  cod,  and  arrived  at  her  Boston 
moorings  an  hour  before  midnight.  But  the 
"fish-stories"  told  in  Provincetown  are  more 
often  legends  of  the  past,  before  the  heroic 
days  of  whaling  went  out  with  the  invention 
of  the  explosive  bomb  lance, — legends  of  for- 
tunes made  in  oil  and  ambergris,  of  hair-breadth 
escapes  from  the  infuriated  monsters,  and  es- 
pecially of  Moby  Dick,  the  veteran  whale  who, 
off  the  coast  of  Chili,  defied  mankind  until  the 
whale-gun  rolled  him  over  at  last,  with  twenty- 
three  old  harpoons  rusted  in  his  body. 

The  foreign  element  in  Provincetown  is  not 
all  Portuguese.  There  is  a  sprinkling  of  many 
nationalities,  especially  Irish,  and,  more  num- 
erous yet,  English  and  Scotch  from  the  Brit- 
ish provinces,  while  sailor-feet  from  all  over 
the  globe  tread  the  long  plank-walk  of  Front 
Street.  This  famous  walk  was  built,  after 
much  wrangling,  from  the  town's  share  of  the 
Surplus  Revenue  distributed  by  Andrew  Jack- 
son, and  the  story  goes  that  the  more  stiff- 
necked  opponents  of  this  extravagance  refused 
their  lifetimes  long  to  step  upon  the  planks, 
and  plodded  indignantly  through  the  sandy 
middle  of  the  road.      Upon  this  chief  thorough- 


Cape  Cod  Towns  365 

fare  stand  several  churches,  looking  seaward. 
Sailors  in  these  waters  used  to  steer  by  the 
meeting-house  steeples,  which  are  frequent  all 
along  the  Cape.  Some  of  those  early  churches 
now  struggle  on  with  meagre  congregations, 
and  a  few  are  abandoned,  the  wind  whistling 
through  the  empty  belfries.  Provincetown  has 
a  record  of  ancient  strife  between  the  Orthodox 
and  the  Methodists.  The  established  sect  re- 
sented the  intrusion  of  the  new  doctrine  to 
such  a  degree  that  they  made  a  bonfire  of  the 
timber  designed  for  the  Methodist  building. 
The  heretics  effectively  retaliated  by  securing 
the  key  to  the  Orthodox  meeting-house,  lock- 
ing out  the  astonished  owners,  and  taking 
permanent  possession,  triumphantly  singing 
Methodist  hymns  to  the  Orthodox  bass-viol. 
It  was  thirty-two  years  before  the  discomfited 
Orthodox  rallied  sufficiently  to  build  them- 
selves another  church. 

Journeying  from  Provincetown,  "perched 
out  on  a  crest  of  alluvial  sand,"  up  the  wrist  of 
the  Cape,  one  sees  the  land  a-making.  At 
first  the  loose  sand  drifts  like  snow.  Then  the 
coarse  marsh-grasses  begin  to  bind  and  hold 
it,  low  bushes  mat  their  roots  about  it,  and 
planted  tracts  of  pitch-pine  give  the  shifting 


366  Cape  Cod  Towns 

waste  a  real  stability.  The  Pilgrims  found, 
they  said, — but  perhaps  there  was  a  Canaan 
dazzle  in  their  eyes, — their  landing-place  well 
wooded  and  the  soil  "a  spit's  depth,  excellent 
black  earth,"  But  now  all  sods  and  garden- 
ground  must  be  brought  from  a  distance,  and  a 
mulberry  or  a  sycamore,  even  the  most  stunted 
apple-tree  that  squats  and  cowers  from  the 
wind,  is  a  proud  possession.  When  President 
Dwight  of  Yale  rode  through  Truro  into  Pro- 
vincetown  a  century  ago,  he  was  amazed  at  the 
sterility  and  bleak  desolation  of  the  landscape, 
half  hidden  as  it  was  by  "  the  tempestuous 
tossing  of  the  clouds  of  sand."  He  was  told 
that  the  inhabitants  were  required  by  law  to 
plant  every  April  bunches  of  beach-grass  to 
keep  the  sand  from  blowing.  The  national 
government,  stirred  by  the  danger  to  the  harbor, 
afterwards  took  the  matter  in  hand.  Between 
1826  and  1838,  twenty-eight  thousand  dollars 
were  expended  in  an  attempt  to  strengthen 
the  harbor  shores  by  beach-grass.  Of  late 
Massachusetts  has  become  aroused  to  the  des- 
olate condition  of  her  Province  Lands,  and  is 
making  a  determined  effort  to  redeem  them  by 
the  planting  of  trees  and  by  other  restorative 
measures.       These    blowing  sand-dunes   have, 


Cape  Cod  Towns  367 

however,  a  strange  beauty  of  their  own,  and 
the  color  effects  in  autumn,  given  by  the  low 
and  ragged  brush,  are  of  the  warmest. 

"  It  was  like  the  richest  rug  imaginable,"  wrote  Tho- 
reau,  "  spread  over  an  uneven  surface;  no  damask  nor 
velvet,  nor  Tyrian  dye  or  stuffs,  nor  the  work  of  any 
loom,  could  ever  match  it.  There  was  the  incredibly 
bright  red  of  the  Huckleberry,  and  the  reddish  brown  of 
the  Bayberry,  mingled  with  the  bright  and  living  green 
of  small  Pitch-Pines,  and  also  the  duller  green  of  the 
Bayberry,  Boxberry  and  Plum,  the  yellowish  green  of 
the  Shrub  Oaks,  and  the  various  golden  and  yellow  and 
fawn-colored  tints  of  the  Birch  and  Maple  and  Aspen, — 
each  making  its  own  figure,  and,  in  the  midst,  the  few 
yellow  sand-slides  on  the  sides  of  the  hills  looked  like 
the  white  floor  seen  through  rents  in  the  rug." 

The  sand  has  dealt  most  unkindly  of  all  with 
Truro,  choking  up  her  harbor,  from  which  a 
fine  fleet  of  mackerel  vessels  used  to  sail.  No 
longer  is  her  rollicking  fishing-song,  apparently 
an  inheritance  from  Old  England,  lifted  on  the 
morning  breeze  : 

"  Up  jumped  the  mackerel. 

With  his  striped  back — 
Says  he,  reef  in   the  mains'l,  and  haul  on  the  tack, 

For  it  's  windy  weather, 

It  's  stormy  weather. 
And  when  the  wind  blows  pipe  all  hands  together — 
For,  upon  my  word,  it  's  windy  weather. 


368  Cape  Cod  Towns 

"  Up  jumped  the  cod, 
With  his  chuckle  head — 
And  jumped  into  the  main  chains  to  heave  at  the  lead, — 
For  it  's  windy  weather,"  etc. 

This  town,  the  Indian  Pamet,  was  formall)' 
settled  in  1709  by  a  few  EngHsh  purchasers 
from  Eastham,  having  been  occupied  earHer 
only  by  irresponsible  fishermen  and  traders. 
The  new  planters  took  hold  with  energy,  wag- 
ing war  against  blackbirds  and  crows,  wolves 
and  foxes,  for  the  protection  of  their  little 
wealth  in  corn  and  cattle,  while  none  the  less 
they  dug  clams,  fished  by  line  and  net  and 
watched  from  their  lookouts  for  offshore  whales. 
The  Cape  plumes  itself  not  a  little  upon  its 
early  proficiency  in  whaling.  In  1690,  one 
Ichabod  Paddock,  whose  name  might  so  easily 
have  been  Haddock,  went  from  Yarmouth  to 
Nantucket  "  to  instruct  the  people  in  the  art 
of  killing  whales  in  boats  from  the  shore." 
And  when  the  sea-monster,  thus  maltreated, 
withdrew  from  its  New  England  haunts,  the 
daring  whalemen  built  ships  and  followed, 
cruising  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific,  even  the  Arc- 
tic and  Antarctic  oceans.  But  the  Revolution 
put  a  check  on  all  our  maritime  enterprises. 
The    Truro    fishermen,    like   the   rest,  laid   by 


Cape  Cod  Towns  369 

their  harpoons,  and  melted  up  their  mackerel 
leads  for  bullets.  From  one  village  of  twenty- 
three  houses,  twenty-eight  men  gave  up  their 
lives  for  liberty.  In  religion,  too,  Truro  had 
the  courage  of  her  convictions,  building  the 
first  Methodist  meeting-house  on  the  Cape, 
the  second  in  New  England.  The  cardinal 
temptation  of  Cape  Cod  is  Sunday  fishing, 
and  Truro  righteousness  was  never  put  more 
sharply  to  the  pinch  than  in  1834,  when  a  pro- 
digious school  of  blackfish  appeared  off  Great 
Hollow  one  autumnal  Sabbath  morning.  A 
number  of  Truro  fishermen,  from  the  Grand 
Banks  and  elsewhere,  were  on  their  way  home 
in  boats  from  Provincetown,  when  the  shining 
shoulders  of  hundreds  of  the  great  fish  were 
seen  moving  through  the  waves.  With  for- 
tunes in  full  view,  a  goodly  number  of  these 
men  shifted  into  boats  which  rowed  soberly 
for  their  destination,  while  the  rest,  with  eager 
outcry,  rounded  up  the  school,  and  drove  the 
frightened  creatures,  with  shouts  and  blows 
from  the  oars,  like  sheep  upon  the  beach. 
Church-members  who  took  part  in  the  wild 
chase  were  brought  to  trial,  but  a  lurking  sym- 
pathy in  the  hearts  of  their  judges  saved  them 
from  actual  expulsion. 


3/0  Cape  Cod  Towns 

This  befell  within  the  period  of  Truro's 
highest  prosperity.  From  1830  to  1855  the 
wharves  were  crowded  with  sloops  and  schoon- 
ers, a  shipyard  was  kept  busy,  and  salt  was 
made  all  along  the  shore.  At  the  middle  of 
the  century,  the  town  had  over  two  thousand 
inhabitants,  but  the  number  has  now  fallen  off 
by  some  three  fifths.  The  "  turtle-like  sheds 
of  the  salt-works,"  which  Thoreau  noted,  have 
been  long  since  broken  up  and  sold  for  lumber. 
There  is  weir-fishing  still,  supplying  fresh  fish 
for  market  and  bait  for  the  fishing-fleets  of 
Provincetown  and  Gloucester.  Rods  of  the 
black  netting  may  be  seen  spread  over  the 
poverty-grass  to  dry. 

Although  the  sand  of  Cape  Cod  is  in  some 
places  three  hundred  feet  deep,  there  is  be- 
lieved to  be  a  backbone  of  diluvian  rock. 
There  is  a  clay  vein,  too,  which  slants  across 
the  Cape  and  crops  out  at  Truro  in  the  so-called 
Clay  Pounds,  now  crowned  by  Highland  Light, 
shining  two  hundred  feet  above  the  ocean.  This 
hill  of  clay  thus  renders  a  sovereign  service 
to  that  dangerous  stretch  of  navigation.  It 
must  be  borne  in  mind  that  Cape  Cod  runs 
out  straight  into  the  Atlantic  for  twoscore 
miles,  by  the   south   measurement,   and   then. 


Z'i2  Cape  Cod  Towns 

abruptly  turning",  juts  up  another  forty  to  the 
north.  The  shifty  sand-bars  of  the  Back  Side 
have  caught,  twisted  and  broken  the  hulls  of 
innumerable  craft.  One  gale  of  wind  wrecked 
eighteen  vessels  between  Race  Point,  at  the 
extremity  of  the  Cape,  and  Highland  Light. 
The  average  width  of  our  crooked  peninsula 
is  six  miles,  but  at  Truro  it  narrows  to  half 
that  distance.  Across  this  strip  the  storms 
whirl  the  flinty  sand,  until  the  humblest  cot- 
tage may  boast  of  ground-glass  window-panes. 
The  coast  outline  is  ever  changing  and  the 
restless  dunes  show  the  fantastic  carvings  of 
the  wind.  The  houses  cuddle  down  into  the 
wavy  hollows,  with  driftwood  stacked  at  their 
back  doors  for  fuel,  and  with  worn-out  fish- 
nets stretched  about  the  chicken-yards.  Here 
and  there  a  pine-tree  abandons  all  attempt  at 
keeping  up  appearances  and  lies  flat  before 
the  blast.  The  ploughed  fields  are  as  white 
with  sand  as  so  many  squares  of  beach,  and 
the  sea-tane  is  strong  in  the  air.  Accustomed, 
before  their  harbor  failed  them,  to  depend 
chiefly  upon  the  sea  for  subsistence,  the  people 
of  Truro  now  find  it  no  easy  matter  to  wrest  a 
living  from  what  they  have  of  land.  Every- 
thing   is    turned    to   account,   from   turnips    to 


374  Cape  Cod  Towns 

mayflowers.  Along  those  sand-pits  of  roads, 
bordered  with  thick  beds  of  pink-belled  bear- 
berries,  or  where  the  dwarfish  pines,  their 
wizened  branches  hung  with  gray  tags  of  moss, 
yellow  the  knolls,  are  gathered  large  quantities 
of  sweetest,  pinkest  arbutus  for  the  Boston 
market. 

Wellfleet,  which  drew  off  from  Eastham  in 
1 763,  has  also  fallen  on  evil  days.  Perhaps 
the  fishermen  have  overreached  themselves 
with  the  greedy  seines.  There  is  high  contro- 
versy on  this  point  between  line-fishers  and 
weir-fishers,  but  the  fact  stands  that  fish  are 
growing  scarce.  Wellfleet  had  once  her  hun- 
dred vessels  at  the  Banks,  her  whaling-schoon- 
ers, built  in  her  own  yards  from  her  own  timber, 
and  beds  of  oysters  much  prized  by  city  pal- 
ates. There  was  a  time  when  forty  or  fifty 
sail  were  busy  every  season  transporting  Well- 
fleet  shell-fish  to  Boston.  "  As  happy  as  a 
clam "  might  then  have  been  the  device  of 
Wellfleet  heraldry.  But  suddenly  the  oyster 
died  and,  although  the  beds  have  been  planted 
anew,  the  ancient  fame  has  not  been  fully  re- 
gained. A  town,  too,  many  of  whose  citizens 
spent  more  than  half  their  lives  on  shipboard, 
was   sure  to  suffer  from    our  wars,   peculiarly 


Cape  Cod  Towns  375 

disastrous  to  seafaring  pursuits.  Early  in  the 
Revolution,  Wellfleet  was  constrained  to  peti- 
tion for  an  abatement  of  her  war-tax,  stating 
that  her  whale-fishery,  by  which  nine  tenths  of 
her  people  lived,  was  entirely  shut  off  by  British 
gunboats,  and  that  the  shell-fish  industries,  on 
which  the  remaining  tenth  depended,  was 
equally  at  a  standstill.  In  this  distress,  as 
again  in  the  Civil  War,  Cape  Cod  sailors 
took  to  privateering  and  made  a  memorable 
record,  Wellfleet,  like  Truro,  has  lessened 
more  than  one  half  in  population  since  1850, 
but  her  shell  roads  are  better  than  the  sand- 
ruts  of  her  neighbor,  and  bicyclists  and  other 
summer  visitors  are  beginning  to  find  her  out. 
She  has  her  own  melancholy  charm  of  barren- 
ness and  desolation  quite  as  truly  as  she  has 
her  characteristic  dainties  of  quahaug  pie  and 
fried-quahaug  cakes.  The  place  abounds  in 
dim  old  stories,  from  the  colonial  legend  of  the 
minister's  deformed  child,  done  to  death  by  a 
dose  from  its  father's  hand,  that  child  whose 
misshapen  little  ghost  still  flits,  on  moonlight 
nights,  about  a  certain  rosebush,  to  the  many- 
versioned  tale  of  the  buccaneer,  ever  and  anon 
seen  prowling  about  that  point  on  the  Back  Side 
where     Sam    Bellamy's    pirate-ship    was    cast 


376 


Cape  Cod  Towns 


away,  and  stooping  to  gather  the  coins  flung" 
up  to  him  by  the  skeleton  hands  of  his  drowned 
shipmates.  A  volume  would  not  suffice  for 
the  stories  of  these  Cape  towns.  Their  very 
calendar  is  kept  by  storms  :  as  the  Magee  storm 
of  December,  1778,  when  the  government  brig 
General  Ai^nold,  commanded  by  Captain  James 

Magee,  went  down  ; 
or  the  Mason  and 
Slidell  storm  of 
1862,  ^^'  h  e  n  the 
Southern  emissaries 
were  brouofht  from 
Fort  Warren  to  Pro- 
vi  nee  town,  and 
there,  amidst  the 
•  ■  "  protest  of  the  ele- 
ments, yielded  up 
to  the  British 
stQ^Ta^rRtnaldo;  or 
«2iiflBk    the  pitiless  October 

BISHOP  AND  CLERK  LIGHT,   HYANNIS.  ^^J^     ^^     ^  g^  ^  ^    ^^^j^^^ 

from  Truro  alone  forty-seven  men  were  swal- 
lowed by  the  sea. 

The  quiet  little  town  of  Eastham,  originally 
"  Nawsett,"  settled  in  1646,  only  seven  years 
after  the  three  pioneers,  Barnstable,  Sandwich 


Cape  Cod  Towns  2)11 

and  Yarmouth,  has  shared  the  hard  fortunes  of 
the  lower  Cape.  With  a  remnant  of  less  than 
five  hundred  inhabitants,  it  finds,  under  the 
present  stress,  a  resource  in  asparagus,  shipping 
a  carload  or  two  to  Boston  every  morning  in 
the  season.  To  this  land  industry  the  ocean 
consents  to  contribute,  the  soil  being  dressed 
for  "  sparrowgrass  "  with  seaweed  and  shells. 
But  no  hardship  can  deprive  Eastham  of  its 
history.  After  the  encounter  between  the  Pil- 
grims and  Indians  here  in  1620,  the  place  was 
not  visited  again  until  the  following  July,  when 
Governor  Bradford  sent  from  Plymouth  a 
boatload  of  ten  men  to  recover  that  young 
scapegrace,  John  Billington.  This  boy,  whose 
father,  ten  years  after,  was  hanged  by  the  col- 
onists for  murder,  had  come  near  blowing  up 
the  Mciyfiotvcr,  in  Provincetown  harbor,  by 
shooting  off  a  fowling-piece  in  her  cabin,  close 
by  an  open  keg  of  powder,  and,  later,  must 
needs  lose  himself  in  Plymouth  woods.  He 
had  wandered  into  the  territory  of  the  Nausets, 
who,  althoueh  this  was  the  tribe  which  had 
suffered  from  Hunt's  perfidy,  restored  the  lad 
unharmed  to  the  English.  The  Nausets  fur- 
ther proved  their  friendliness  by  supplying  the 
Pilgrims,   in   the   starving  time   of   1622,  with 


37' 


Cape  Cod  Towns 


stores  of  corn  and  beans.  But  the  following 
year,  suspecting  an  Indian  plot  against  the 
colonists,  Myles  Standish,  that  "  little  chimney 
soon  on  fire,"  appeared  upon  the  Cape  in  full 
panoply  of  war,  executed  certain  of  the  alleged 

conspirators  and  so 
terrified  the  rest 
that  many  fled  to 
the  marshes  and 
miserably  perished. 
The  traveller  up 
the  Cape  notices 
still  that  Eastham 
has  more  of  a  land 
look  than  the  lower 
towns.  The  soil  is 
darker,  small  stones 
appear,  and  the 
trees,  although  still 
twisted  to  left  and  right,  as  if  to  dodge  a  blow, 
are  larger.  The  Indians  had  maize-fields  there 
and  the  site  seemed  so  promising  to  the  Pilgrims 
that  talk  sprang  up  in  the  early  forties  of  trans- 
ferring the  Plymouth  colony  thither.  As  a  com- 
promise, several  of  the  old-comers  obtained  a 
grant  of  the  Nauset  land,  and  established  a 
branch  settlement,  soon  incorporated  as  a  town- 


OLD  WINDMILL,   EASTHAM. 


Cape  Cod  Towns  379 

ship.  Promptly  arose  their  meeting-house, 
twenty  feet  square,  with  port-holes  and  a  thatch. 
They  secured  a  full  congregation  by  absence 
penalties  of  ten  shillings,  a  flogging  or  the 
stocks.  One  of  these  sturdy  fathers  in  the 
faith.  Deacon  Doane,  is  said  to  have  lived  to 
the  patriarchal  age  of  one  hundred  and  ten, 
rounding  life's  circle  so  completely  that  at  the 
end,  as  at  the  beginning,  he  was  helplessly 
rocked  in  a  cradle. 

Thoreau  was  amused  over  a  provision  made 
by  the  town  of  Eastham  in  1662,  that  "  a  part 
of  every  whale  cast  on  shore  be  appropriated 
for  the  support  of  the  ministry,"  and  drew  a 
fancy-picture  of  the  old  parsons  sitting  on  the 
sand-hills  in  the  storms,  anxiously  watching  for 
their  salaries  to  be  rolled  ashore  over  the  bars 
of  the  Back  Side.  One  of  these  worthies, 
Rev.  Samuel  Treat,  whose  oratory  outroared 
the  stormy  surf,  shares  with  Richard  Bourne, 
of  Sandwich,  the  memory  of  a  true  pastoral 
care  for  the  Cape  Indians.  He  was,  in  re- 
turn, so  well  beloved,  that,  on  his  death,  his 
wild  converts  dug  a  long  passage  through  the 
remarkably  deep  snowfall  of  the  time,  and 
bore  him  on  their  shoulders  down  this  white 
archway  to  his  grave.    The  Revolutionary  War 


380  Cape  Cod  Towns 

was  a  heavy  drain  on  the  resources  of  the 
staunch  Httle  town,  but,  with  the  restoration 
of  peace,  whaHng  and  all  kinds  of  deep-sea 
fishing  were  resumed,  and  a  tide  of  prosperity 
set  in.  Salt-works  were  established,  and  pre- 
sently Eastham  was  able  to  afford  such  luxuries 
as  a  pulpit  cushion  and  a  singing-school. 

Orleans,  set  off  in  1797  from  the  southerly 
portion  of  Eastham,  has  an  old-fashioned 
quaintness  that  is  better  than  business  pros- 
perity. Sand  has  partially  closed  the  harbors, 
and  the  population  has  been  dwindling  for  the 
past  half-century,  but  the  ocean  still  serves  old 
neighbors  as  it  can  with  quahaugs  and  the 
seaweed,  now  collected  for  paper-making.  The 
distinction  of  being  the  terminus  of  the  French 
Atlantic  Cable  fromi  Brest  is  in  keeping  with 
the  name  Orleans — a  unique  instance  of  a  for- 
eign title  among  these  old  Cape  towns.  The 
early  settlers  put  by  the  melodious  I  ndian  words, 
Succanessett,  Mattacheeset,  and  the  rest,  and 
substituted  the  dear  home  names  from  Devon, 
Cornwall,  Norfolk  and  Kent.  The  christening 
of  Brewster,  Bourne  and  Dennis  honored  sev- 
erally the  Pilgrim  elder,  the  Sandwich  friend  of 
the  Indians  and  a  Yarmouth  pastor  ;  but  these 
are   of  comparatively  recent  date.      As  Well- 


Cape  Cod  Towns  381 

fleet  and  Orleans  have  been  cut,  on  north  and 
south,  out  of  the  original  Eastham,  so  were 
Harwich,  Chatham,  Dennis,  Brewster,  once 
"within  the  liberties  of  Yarmouth." 

The  history  of  Yarmouth,  too,  is  so  closely 
allied  to  the  histories  of  Barnstable  and  of 
Sandwich,  with  her  daughter  Bourne,  that  the 
story  of  all  these  may  be  told  as  one. 

These  three  initial  settlements  on  the  Cape 
were  recognized  as  townships  in  1639.  From 
the  outset,  the  difference  in  their  locations  im- 
posed upon  them  different  tasks.  Yarmouth, 
the  elbow  town  of  the  Cape,  bore  the  brunt 
of  wind  and  wave  ;  Sandwich  kept  the  border, 
notably  in  King  Philip's  War,  when  she  guarded 
the  faithful  Cape  Indians  from  temptation  and 
received  for  safe  harborage  English  refugees 
from  the  ravaged  districts  ;  and  Barnstable,  the 
aristocratic  sister  of  the  group,  made  traciitions, 
set  examples  and  produced  the  Otis  family. 
With  Old  Yarmouth,  the  Cape  widens.  No 
longer  do  householders,  as  at  Truro,  own  land 
in  strips  from  shore  to  shore.  The  soil,  too, 
deepens,  and  the  cows  need  not  with  hungry 
noses  brush  away  the  drifted  sand  to  find  the 
grass.  On  the  Back  Side  is  no  marked  change 
in   aspect.      Still  pine  grove  after  pine   grove 


382  Cape  Cod  Towns 

adds  flavor  to  the  salt  air,  and  where  the 
carpet  of  needles  is  trodden  through,  gleam 
patches  of  white  sand.  The  strange  reap- 
pearance of  the  Somerset  is  out-miracled  in 
Old  Ship  Harbor,  where,  in  1863,  long  after 
the  significance  of  the  name  had  been  for- 
gotten, the  hull  of  the  Sparroiu-Haiu k,  wrecked 
there  in  1626,  on  her  way  from  London  to 
Virginia,  rose  again  to  view.  This  portion  of 
the  Cape  is  in  excellent  repute  with  pleasure- 
seekers,  and  the  seaside  cottage  is  ubiquitous, 
especially  in  beautiful  Chatham,  whose  ever- 
changing  shore  takes  the  wildest  raging  of  the 
surf.  Harwich,  which  has  gone  through  the 
regular  stages  of  whaling,  codding,  mackerel- 
fishing  and  salt-making,  cultivates  in  turn  the 
summer  boarder,  but  somewhat  quizzically. 
Retired  sea-captains  are  not  easily  overawed 
even  by  golf-sticks,  and  retired  sea-captains, 
in  Harwich,  are  as  thick  as  cranberries.  Snuff- 
ing the  brine,  they  pace  their  porches  like  so 
many  quarter-decks  and  delight  their  auditors 
and  themselves  with  marvellous  recitals.  The 
Cape  has  not  proved  friendly  to  manufactures 
in  general.  Salt-works  and  glass-works  have 
come  to  naught, — but  the  spinning  of  sea- 
yarns  is  a  perennial  industry. 


384  Cape  Cod  Towns 

Many  of  the  summer  guests  prefer  the  north 
side  of  the  Cape,  where  fogs  are  less  frequent, 
or  where,  in  ancient  Indian  parlance,  old  Maus- 
hope  smokes  his  pipe  less  often.  Such  find  in 
Brewster  and  Dennis  no  less  delightful  colonies 
of  ancient  ship-masters,  living  easily  off  their 
sea-hoards.  In  1837  that  little  town  of  Dennis 
claimed  no  fewer  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 
skippers  sailing  from  various  American  ports, 
and  in  1850  it  was  said  that  more  sea-captains 
went  on  foreign  voyages  from  Brewster  than 
from  any  other  place  in  the  United  States. 
Often  their  wives  sailed  with  them  and  had 
thereafter  something  wider  than  village  gossip 
to  bring  to  the  quilting-  and  the  sewing-circle. 
It  was  a  great  day  for  the  children  in  the  vil- 
lage when  a  sea-captain  came  home.  From 
door  to  door  went  his  frank  sailor-gifts,  jars 
of  Chinese  sweetmeats,  shimmering  Indian 
stuffs,  tamarinds,  cocoanuts,  parrots,  fans  of 
gay  feather,  boxes  of  spicy  wood,  glowing 
corals,  and  such  great,  whispering  shells  as 
Cape  Cod  beaches  never  knew.  It  was  a 
hospitable  and  merry  time,  given  to  savory 
suppers,  picnic  clambakes,  and  all  manner  of 
neighborly  good-cheer.  Even  the  common 
dread    made     for    a    closer    sympathy.      Any 


Cape  Cod  Towns  385 

woman,  going  softly  to  her  neighbor  to  break 
the  news  of  the  husband  lost  in  Arctic  ice, 
might  in  some  dark  hour  drop  her  head  upon 
that  neighbor's  shoulder  in  hearing  of  a  son 
drowned  off  the  Banks  or  slain  by  South  Sea 
Islanders. 

The  old  town  of  Yarmouth,  dozing  thus 
among  children  already  gray,  has  many  a  thing 
to  dream  about,  when  the  surf  is  loud.  She 
remembers  the  terrible  gale  of  1635,  in  which 
the  Thacher  family  were  wrecked  upon  the 
island  that  since  has  borne  their  name,  the 
March  snow-storm  that  destroyed  the  three 
East  Indiamen  from  Salem,  the  stranding  of 
the  English  Jason,  and  many  a  tragedy  more. 
Along  that  treacherous  Back  Side,  lighthouse 
towers  are  now  closely  set,  and  well-equipped, 
w^ell-manned  life-savino-  stations  have  succeeded 
the  rude  Charity  Houses,  the  fireplace,  wood 
and  matches,  straw  pallet,  and  signal-pole 
which  used  to  give  what  succor  they  might 
to  hapless  mariners.  The  old  volunteer  coast- 
guard, which  rarely  failed  to  pace  the  beach 
in  storms,  is  now  replaced  by  a  regular  patrol, 
carrying  lanterns  and  red  hand-lights  and 
thoroughly  drilled  in  the  use  of  shot-line  and 
breeches-buoy.       But    still    the    fierce-blowing 


386 


Cape  Cod  Towns 


sand  cuts  their  faces  to  bleedincr  and  still  the 
furious  surf  makes  playthings  of  their  life- 
boats, so  that  manhood  has  no  less  heroic 
opportunity  than  in  the  earlier  days.  The 
crew  at  one  of  these  stations,  after  an  exposure 
of  twelve  hours    on   the  wintry    beach,  failed 


LIFE-SAVING  STATION   AT  WELLFLEET. 

in  every  effort  to  launch  the  surf-boat  and 
had  to  see  the  rescue  they  should  have  made 
effected  by  a  crew  of  fishermen  volunteers. 
The  keeper  brooded  over  his  disgrace  and 
the  following  winter  wiped  out  what  is  known 
upon  the  Cape  as  the   "goading    slur"  by  a 


388  Cape  Cod  Towns 

desperate  launching  in    a    surf    that  beat  the 
Hfe  from  his  body. 

Ever  since  the  day  of  the  Pilgrims,  who 
made  the  suggestion,  and  of  George  Washing- 
ton, who  furthered  the  project,  there  has  been 
talk  of  a  Cape  Cod  canal  to  expedite  traffic 
and  avert  disaster.  A  channel  between  East- 
ham  and  Orleans  was  once  forced  by  the  sea, 
and  various  routes  through  Yarmouth,  Barn- 
stable and  Sandwich  have  been  surveyed,  and 
charters  granted,  but  ships  still  round  Race 
Point.  The  railroad,  however,  which  was  built 
by  slow  stages  down  the  Cape  and  reached 
Provincetown  only  a  quarter  of  a  century  since, 
has  facilitated  travel,  doing  away  both  with 
the  red-and-yellow  mail-coach,  which  used,  a 
hundred  years  ago,  to  clatter  through  to  Bos- 
ton in  two  glorious  days,  and  with  the  packet 
service  of  jolly  memory.  Yarmouth  and  Barn- 
stable were  sharp  rivals  in  these  packet  trips, 
Barnstable  putting  her  victories  into  verse  : 

"  The  Co7nmodore  Htdl  she  sails  so  dull 

She  makes  her  crew  look  sour  ; 

The  Eagle  Flight  she  is  out  of  sight 

Less  than  a  half  an  hour. 
But  the  bold  old  Emerald  takes  delight 
To  beat  the  Commodo7'e  and  the  Flight.'' 


Cape  Cod  Towns 


589 


Barnstable  has  pursued  from  the  outset  a 
course  of  modest  prosperity.  She  does  not 
ask  too  much  of 
fortune.  If  her 
census-roll  has 
gained  only  five 
in  the  last  de- 
cade, that  is  bet- 
ter than  losing, 
as  most  of  the 
Cape  towns  have 
done,  and,  even 
so,  her  numbers 
rank  next  to  Pro- 
vincetown.  How 
hurnble  were  the 
beginnings  of 
this  sedate  and 
gracious  county 
seat  may  be  learned  from  the  letter  of  an  early 
citizen,  declining  Governor  Winslow's  appoint- 
ment to  lead  an  expedition  against  the  Dutch. 
This  quiet  colonist,  who  commanded  the  Ply- 
mouth forces  in  King  Philip's  War,  pleads  his 
domestic  cares  : 

"  My  wife,  as  is  well  known  to  the  whole  town,  is  not 
only  a  weak  woman,  and  has  been  so  all  along,  but  now, 


BARNSTABLE  INN. 


390  Cape  Cod  Towns 

by  reason  of  age,  being  sixty-seven  years  and  upwards, 
and  nature  decaying,  so  her  iUness  grows  more  strongly 
upon  her.  Never  a  day  passes  but  she  is  forced  to  rise 
at  break  of  day,  or  before.  She  cannot  lie  for  want  of 
breath.  And  when  she  is  up,  she  cannot  light  a  pipe  of 
tobacco,  but  it  must  be  lighted  for  her.  And  she  has 
never  a  maid.  That  day  your  letter  came  to  my  hands, 
my  maid's  year  being  out,  she  went  away,  and  I  cannot 
get  or  hear  of  another.  And  then  in  regard  of  my  occa- 
sions abroad,  for  the  tending  and  looking  after  all  my 
creatures,  the  fetching  home  my  hay,  that  is  yet  at  the 
place  where  it  grew,  getting  of  wood,  going  to  mill,  and 
for  the  performing  all  other  family  occasions,  I  have  now 
but  a  small  Indian  boy  about  thirteen  years  of  age,  to 
help  me.  Sir,  I  can  truly  say  that  I  do  not  in  the  least 
waive  the  business  out  of  an  effeminate  or  dastardly 
spirit,  but  am  as  freely  willing  to  serve  my  King  and  my 
country  as  any  man  whatsoever,  in  what  I  am  capable  and 
fitted  for,  but  do  not  understand  that  a  man  is  so  called 
to  serve  his  country  with  the  inevitable  ruin  and  destruc- 
tion of  his  own  family." 

An  "  effeminate  or  dastardly  spirit "  would 
indeed  be  a  novelty  in  the  birthplace  of  James 
Otis.  But  it  was  not  only  in  face  of  the  Indian 
and  the  redcoat  that  these  three  old  towns 
showed  firm  courage.  To  their  glory  be  it  re- 
membered that  they  withstood  the  persecutor 
and  bluntly  refused  to  enforce  the  laws  against 
heresy,  so  that  a  special  officer  had  to  be  sent 
by  Plymouth  Court  to  hunt  out  and  oppress 


Cape  Cod  Towns  391 

the  Quakers.  Under  his  petty  tyrannies,  the 
faith  of  the  Friends  gained  many  converts,  and 
Quakerism  became  permanently  estabhshed  on 
the  Cape. 

These  upper  towns  have  never  depended 
on  the  sea  as  exclusively  as  those  below,  and 
hence  the  decline  of  the  fisheries  has  been  less 
disastrous  to  them.  They  need  industries  to 
hold  their  young  people  at  home,  but  the  ma- 
rine manufacture  of  salt  by  solar  evaporation, 
the  discovery  of  a  Dennis  sea-captain,  has  had 
its  day,  and  the  once  famous  Sandwich  glass- 
works are  now  idle.  Sheep-raising  and  cattle- 
raisinor  were  lone  since  abandoned,  but  while 
the  New  England  Thanksgiving  lasts,  cran- 
berry culture  bids  fair  to  yield  an  honest  profit. 
As  early  as  1677,  Massachusetts  presented 
Charles  II.  (put  out  of  humor  by  the  pine- 
tree  shilling)  with  three  thousand  codfish,  two 
hogsheads  of  samp  and  ten  barrels  of  cran- 
berries. These  last  are  still  good  enough  for 
a  better  king  than  the  Merry  Monarch,  and 
cranberry-picking  is  one  of  the  most  pic- 
turesque sights  on  the  modern  Cape.  Hun- 
dreds of  pickers,  gathering  by  hand  or  with 
the  newly  invented  machines,  move  over  a 
bog   in   ordered    companies.       The    "  summer 


392  Cape  Cod  Towns 

folks"  flock  to  the  fun,  and  Portuguese,  Ital- 
ians, Swedes,  Poles,  Finns,  Russians,  troop 
down  from  Boston  and  over  from  New  Bed- 
ford for  the  brief  cranberry  season,  or  they 
may  come  earlier  to  join  the  blueberry-pickers 
that  dot  the  August  hills.  The  bogs  are  easily 
made  from  the  wastes  of  swamp,  which  are 
drained,  sanded,  planted  and  given  three 
years  to  grow  a  solid  mat  of  vines.  The  crop 
from  a  few  acres  brings  dollars  enough  to  carry 
the  thrifty  Cape  Codder  through  the  year. 
Rents  are  of  the  lowest,  and  the  shrewd  old 
seaman  who  tends  his  own  garden,  salts  his 
own  pork,  raises  his  own  chickens,  milks  his 
own  cow  and  occasionally  "  goes  a-fishin','' 
while  his  wife  cooks  and  sews,  and  "  ties  tags  " 
for  pin-money,  has  no  heavy  bills  to  meet. 
There  is  so  little  actual  poverty  in  these  towns 
that  the  poorhouse  is  often  rented. 

Even  Mashpee,  once  the  Indian  reservation, 
but  now  a  little  township  peopled  by  half- 
breeds,  mulattoes  and  a  sprinkling  of  whites, 
grows  tidier  and  more  capable  every  year.  The 
aborigines  of  Cape  Cod  have  left  slight  traces 
save  the  melodious  names  that  cling  to  bay 
and  creek.  Arrow-heads  are  scattered  about, 
and  now  and  then  the  plough  turns  up  one  of 


Cape  Cod  Towns  393 

the  clam-shell  hoes  with  which  the  Nausets 
used  to  till  their  maize-fields.  The  Praying 
Indians  of  the  Cape  deserve  our  memory, 
for  they  were  always  faithful  to  their  English 
neio-hbors.  When  the  first  regiment  was  raised 
in  Barnstable  County  for  the  Revolutionary 
War,  twenty-two  Mashpees  enlisted,  of  whom 
but  one  came  home.  A  Praying  Indian  of 
Yarmouth  has  won  a  place  in  New  England 
song, — Nauhaught  the  Deacon,  who,  hunger- 
pinched,  restored  the  tempting  purse  of  gold 
to  the  Wellfleet  skipper  and  received  a  tithe 
"  as  an  honest  man." 

The  beauty  of  the  upper  Cape,  culminating 
in  the  lovely  town  of  Falmouth,  is  largely  rural 
and  sylvan.  A  system  of  dyking  has,  within 
the  last  fifty  years,  converted  much  of  the  salt 
marsh  to  good,  fresh  meadow,  and,  from  Or- 
leans up,  the  look  of  the  country  is  more  and 
more  aofricultural.  Portions  of  Yarmouth  are 
well  wooded,  and  in  Barnstable,  Sandwich  and 
Falmouth  are  depths  of  forest  where  the  fox 
and  the  deer  run  wild.  The  wolf  alone  has 
been  exterminated,  and  that  with  no  small 
trouble,  the  Cape  finally  proposing,  after  grisly 
heads  had  been  nailed  on  all  her  meeting- 
houses, to  build  a  high  fence  along  her  upper 


394  Cape  Cod  Towns 

border  and  shut  the  wolves  out.  But  Ply- 
mouth and  Wareham  objected,  from  their 
side  of  the  question,  to  having  the  wolves 
shut  in,  and  this  ingenious  scheme  had  to 
be  abandoned.  These  woodlands  are  dotted 
in  profusion  with  silvery  ponds,  which  the 
Fish  Commission  at  Wood's  Holl  keeps  well 
stocked.  Often  the  north  side,  as  in  Sand- 
wich, is  skirted  by  long  stretches  of  unre- 
claimed marsh,  over  which  the  heron  flaps, 
with  the  distinguished  air  of  an  old  resident, 
and  from  which  the  sweet  whistle  of  the 
marsh  quail  answers  the  "  Bob  White  "  of  the 
woods.  There  is  plenty  of  rock  in  this  land- 
scape, the  backbone  of  the  Cape  jutting 
through.  Barnstable  proudly  exhibits  four 
hundred  feet  of  wall,  two  feet  in  width,  wrought 
from  a  sinsfle  mass  of  orranite  found  within  her 
limits.  Falmouth  arbutus  grows  pinkest  about 
the  base  of  a  big  boulder  known  as  City  Rock, 
and  a  field  of  tumbled  stones  upon  her  Quisset 
road  is  accounted  for  on  the  hypothesis  that 
here  the  Devil,  flying  with  his  burden  over  to 
Nantucket,  "broke  his  apron-string."  The 
trees,  too,  are  of  goodly  size  and  stand  erect. 
Elms,  silver-leaf  poplars,  balm  of  Gileads, 
great  sycamores,  spotted  with  iron-rust  lichen. 


39^  Cape  Cod  Towns 

and  willows,  lemon  yellow  in  the  sun,  shade  the 
waysides.  Golden-winged  woodpeckers  and 
red-shouldered  blackbirds  dart  to  and  fro,  while 
the  abundance  of  jaunty  martin-houses  shows 
that  Cape  Cod  hospitality  is  not  limited  to  the 
human. 

The  quiet,  white  homesteads,  with  green 
blinds,  broad  porches  and  sometimes  a  cupola 
for  the  sea-view,  stand  in  a  sweet  tranquillity 
and  dignity  that  should  abash  the  showy  sum- 
mer residence.  But  these  old-fashioned  homes 
keep  up  with  the  times.  Against  the  well- 
sweep  leans  the  bicycle.  The  dooryards  are 
blue  with  myrtle,  or  pink  with  rose-bushes, 
or  gay  with  waving  daffodils.  Old  age  is  in 
fashion  on  the  Cape.  When  twilight  fades, 
the  passer-by  sees  gathered  about  the  early 
evening  lamp  the  white  heads  of  those  whose 
"  chores  "  are  done.  And  though  death  comes 
at  last,  the  cemeteries  are  so  tenderly  kept  that 
the  grave  is  robbed  of  half  its  dread.  Even 
in  the  oldest  burial-grounds,  where  the  worn, 
scarred  stones  lean  with  the  privilege  of  age, 
the  staring  death's-heads  are  cozily  muffled  in 
moss,  and  "  Patience,  wife  of  Experience," 
sleeps  under  a  coverlet  of  heartsease. 

All  the  way  from  Provincetown  to  Falmouth 


39^  Cape  Cod  Towns 

are  certain  briny  signals, — a  ship's  figure- 
head, marble  steps  whose  stone  was  washed 
ashore  as  wreckage,  lobster-pots,  herring-nets, 
conch-shells  set  on  lintels,  a  discontented  polar 
bear  pacing  a  stout-paled  yard,  ruftiing  cocka- 
toos, boats  converted  into  fiower-boxes,  whales' 
vertebrae  displayed  for  ornament,  garden-beds 
marked  out  with  scallop-shells,  ever)'where  the 
ship-shape  look,  the  sailor's  handy  rig,  and 
everywhere  the  codfish  used  for  weathercocks. 
In  Barnstable  court-house  a  mammoth  cod  is 
suspended  from  the  ceiling.  Vistas  of  ocean 
outlook,  too,  from  under  arches  of  green 
branches,  flash  upon  the  eye,  the  salty  flavor 
is  not  lost  in  woodland  fragrances,  and  the  roll- 
ing hills  and  wavy  pastures  take  their  model 
from  the  sea. 

Of  the  old-timey  features  of  the  Cape,  no 
one  is  more  impressive  than  the  witch-like 
windmill  with  its  peaked  cap,  outspread  arms 
and  slanting  broomstick,  reminding  us  that  the 
Pilerims  came  from  Holland.  Some  of  these 
antique  mills  have  been  bought  by  summer 
residents  and  moved  to  their  estates  for  curios- 
ities, but  the  one  at  Orleans  was  in  use  as  late 
as  1892,  taking  its  profitable  toll  of  two  quarts 
out  of  the  bushel. 


400  Cape  Cod  Towns 

The  general  history  of  Fahiiouth  but  re- 
peats the  story  of  her  sister  towns.  The  first 
settlers  are  believed  to  have  come  in  boats  from 
Barnstable,  in  1660.  They  encamped  for  the 
niofht  amonor  the  flaofs  of  Consider  Hatch's 
Pond,  where  a  child  was  born  and,  in  recogni- 
tion of  the  rushes  that  sang  his  earliest  lullaby, 
named  Moses.  The  town  was  duly  incorporated 
in  1686,  next  after  Eastham,  and  has  steadfastly 
stood  for  piety,  wisdom  and  patriotism.  She 
admitted  the  Quakers,  and  if  one  of  her  dea- 
cons held  a  negro  slave,  as  colonial  deacons 
often  did,  poor  Cuffee  was  at  least  brought  to 
the  communion  table.  It  is  Truro  that  con- 
tains "  Pomp's  Lot,"  where  the  stolen  African, 
with  loaf  of  bread  and  jug  of  water  at  his  feet 
for  sustenance  on  his  new  journey,  escaped 
slavery  by  hanging.  As  for  learning,  it  was 
Sandwich  Academy  which  the  Cape  towns 
held  in  awe,  but  our  Falmouth  men,  like  the 
rest,  half  sailor,  half  farmer  and  all  theolop^ian, 
had  a  genuine  culture,  born  of  keen-eyed 
voyaging  and  of  lonely  thought,  that  kept 
the  air  about  them  tinoflincr  with  intelliorence. 
When  it  comes  to  war  stories,  if  Provincetown, 
from  her  end  of  the  Cape,  can  tell  of  her  boy 
in  blue  that  went  down  with  the   CiLinberlaud, 


402  Cape  Cod  Towns 

and  her  naval  captain  at  Manila,  Falmouth 
can  recall  that  twice  she  was  bombarded  by 
the  British  and  twice  defended  by  the  valor  of 
her  sons,  and  when  the  Civil  War  broke  out, 
with  the  larger  share  of  her  able-bodied  men 
at  sea,  she  yet  sent  more  than  her  quota  of 
soldiers  to  the  front. 

Within  the  last  quarter-century,  Falmouth 
has  entered  on  new  activities,  largely  due  to 
the  increasing  fame  of  Buzzard's  Bay  as  a 
summer  resort.  The  story  goes  that  the  town 
had  all  gone  to  sleep,  but  somebody  woke  one 
day  and  painted  his  front  fence,  and  forth- 
with his  neighbors,  not  to  be  outdone,  painted 
theirs,  and  their  houses  too,  and  the  new  era 
came  in  with  a  rush.  But  whatever  good  fort- 
une the  future  has  in  store,  Paul  Revere's 
bell,  that  sounds  from  her  central  steeple,  will 
hold  Falmouth  true  to  her  traditions  ;  for  these 
Cape  towns,  simple  as  their  record  is,  have 
worked  out  on  unconsciously  heroic  lines  the 
essential  principles  of  a  God-fearing,  self-re- 
specting democracy. 


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DEERFIELD 

OLD  POCUMTUCK  VALLEY 

By  GEORGE  SHELDON 

TO  every  one  familiar  with  the  history  of  the 
old  Bay  State,  the  name  of  Deerfield 
naturally  brings  to  mind  two  diverse  pictures  : 
one,  the  giant  trees  of  the  primeval  forest  un- 
der whose  sombre  shade  the  white-haired 
Eliot  prayed,  and  the  sluggish  stream  beside 
whose  banks  he  gathered  its  roving  denizens 
for  a  test  of  civilization  ;  the  other,  that  scene 
of  woe  and  desolation,  when,  under  a  wintry 
sky,  the  glare  of  burning  houses  lighted  up  a 
wide  expanse  of  snow,  shaded  by  dark  columns 
of  wavering  smoke,  and  splashed  here  and 
there  with  red.  The  first  picture  suggests 
possibilities,  the  second  results.  The  connect- 
ing link  between  the  two  is  the  fact  that  out 
of   the   labors  of   Eliot  on   the   river   Charles 

403 


404  Deerfield 

grew  directly  the  settlement  of  the  English  on 
the  Pocumtuck. 

Back  of  all  was  the  interest  in  the  newly  dis- 
covered heathen,  which  sent  currents  of  gold 
from  England  across  the  seas  to  the  Indian 
missions.  Of  all  these  that  of  the  Apostle  Eliot 
was  the  head  and  front.  His  first  attempt,  at 
Newton,  was  a  failure,  from  its  proximity  to  a 
Christian  town.  On  his  petition,  the  General 
Court  granted  him  a  tract  in  the  wilderness 
where  he  and  the  uncontaminated  native  could 
come  face  to  face  with  the  God  of  Nature. 
This  tract  was  claimed  by  the  town  of  Dedham, 
and,  after  a  successful  legfal  contest,  the  General 
Court  gave  the  claimant  in  lieu  of  it  the  right 
to  select  eight  thousand  acres  in  any  unoccu- 
pied part  of  the  colony.  After  wide  search 
this  grant  was  laid  out  on  Pocumtuck  River, 
and  the  selection  was  ratified  by  the  Court, 
October  1 1,  1665. 

This  power,  however,  was  only  leave  to  pur- 
chase of  the  native  owners.  The  laws  recog- 
nized the  rights  of  the  Indians  to  the  soil,  and 
no  Englishman  was  allowed  to  buy  or  even  re- 
ceive as  a  gift  any  land  from  an  Indian  without 
leave  of  the  General  Court.  The  oft-repeated 
slander  that  the  fair  purchase  of  land  from  the 


4o6  Deerfield 

Indians  was  peculiar  to  William  Penn,  can  be 
refuted  in  general  by  a  study  of  our  early 
statute  books,  and  in  particular  by  an  examin- 
ation of  the  original  deeds  from  the  Indians, 
nowMU  our  Memorial  Hall. 

It  will  be  seen  by  these  deeds  that  the  In- 
dians reserved  the  right  of  hunting,  fishing 
and  gathering  nuts — all,  in  fact,  that  was  of 
any  real  value  to  them.  The  critic  says  that 
in  such  trades  the  price  was  nominal  and  that 
the  Indian  was  outrageously  cheated.  Fort- 
unately, in  this  case  existing  evidence  proves 
that  Dedham  paid  the  natives  more  than  the 
English  market  price,  in  hard  cash,  and  besides 
gave  one  acre  at  Natick  for  every  four  here. 

The  money  to  pay  for  the  eight  thousand 
acres  was  raised  by  a  tax  on  the  landholders  of 
Dedham,  the  owners  paymg  in  proportion  to 
the  number  of  shares  or  "  cow  commons " 
held  ;  and  their  ownership  of  the  new  territory 
was  in  the  same  proportion.  There  were  five 
hundred  and  twenty-two  shares  in  all,  held 
in  common,  covering  the  whole  of  Dedham. 

In  1 67 1  a  committee  from  Dedham  laid  out 
highways,  set  apart  tracts  for  the  support  of 
the  ministry,  laid  out  a  "  Town  Plott,"  and 
large  sections  of  plow-land   and  of  mow-land. 


Deerfield  407 

In  each  of  these  sections  individuals  were  as- 
signed by  lot  their  respective  number  of  cow 
commons.  Later  the  woodlands  were  divided 
in  the  same  manner.  For  generations  this 
land  was  bought  and  sold,  not  by  the  acre,  but 
by  the  cow  common,  fractions  thereof  being 
sheep  or  goat  commons,  five  of  these  being  a 
unit. 

The  "Town  Plott,"  laid  out  in  1671,  is  the 
Old  Deerfield  Street  of  to-day. 

The  first  settlers  at  Pocumtuck  were  not, 
as  generally  supposed,  the  original  Dedham 
owners.  The  shares  of  the  latter  had  been 
for  years  on  the  market,  and  many  had  passed 
to  outsiders.  But  only  picked  men  were  al- 
lowed to  become  proprietors.  This  fact  is 
illustrated  by  votes  like  the  following  : 

"  Dec.  4,  1 67 1.  John  Plimpton  is  allowed  to 
purchase  land  of  John  Bacon  at  Pawcumtucke 
provided  that  the  said  John  Plimpton  doe  set- 
tle thereupon  in  his  owne  person."  On  the 
same  day  the  request  of  Daniel  Weld  for  leave 
to  purchase  was  refused.  No  reason  was  as- 
signed, and  Mr.  Weld  was  admitted  soon 
after. 

"Feb.  16,  1671-2.  Lieft.  Fisher  is  alowed 
libertie  to  sell  6  cow  common  rights  and  one 


4o8 


Deerfield 


sheepe  common  right  at  Pauconituck  to   Na- 
thaniel Sutthfe  of  Medfield." 


FRARY    HOUSE,    1698.     OLDEST    IN    THE    COUNTY. 


The  pioneer  settler  here  was  Samuel  H ins- 
dell,  of  Medford.  He  had  bought  shares,  and, 
impatient  of  delay  in  making  the  division,  he 
became  a  squatter,  and  in  1669  turned  the  first 
furrow  in  the  viro^in  soil  of  Pocumtuck.  Sam- 
son  Frary  was  a  close  second,  if  not  a  contem- 
porary ;  "  Samson  Frary's  cellar"  is  mentioned 
in  the  report  of  the  Committee,  May,  1671. 


Deerfield  409 

The  settlers  increased  rapidly.  May  7, 
1673,  the  General  Court  gave  them  "  Liberty 
of  a  Towneship,"  which  is  Deerfield's  only 
"Act  of  Incorporation."  Soon  after,  a  rude 
meeting-house  was  built,  and  Samuel  Mather 
served  as  a  minister  among  them. 

A  loose  sheet  of  paper  has  been  found  dated 
Nov.  7,  1673,  with  a  record  of  a  town-meeting. 
This  was  signed  by  the  following,  who  must  be 
called  the  earliest  settlers  : 

Richard  Weler  John  Barnard 

John  Plympton  John  Weler 

Joshua  Carter  Samuel  Herenton 

Samson  Frary  John  Hinsdell 

Quinten  Stockwell  Ephraim  Hinsdell 

Joseph  Gillet  Moses  Crafts 

Barnabas  Hinsdell  Nathaniel  Sutley 

Robert  Hinsdell  John  Farrington 

John  Allen  Thomas  Hastings 

Daniel  Weld  Francis  Barnard 

Samuel  Hinsdell  Samuel  Daniel 

Experience  Hinsdell  James  Tufts. 
The  action  of  this  meeting  was  chiefly  on 
the  division  of  land,  but  it  was  voted  that  "  all 
charges  respecting  the  ministers  sallerye  or 
maintenance  bee  leuied  and  raised  on  lands  for 
the  present."      Another  page  shows  a  meet- 


4IO  Deerfield 

ing  November  17,  1674,  when  the  plantation 
was  called  Deerfield.  We  have  no  clue  as  to 
why  or  by  what  authority  it  was  so  called. 

The  newcomers  found  the  meadows  free 
from  trees,  with  a  rich  soil  which  soon  yielded 
abundantly  of  wheat,  rye,  peas,  oats,  beans, 
flax,  grass  and  Indian  corn.  The  meadows 
were  enclosed  with  a  common  fence  to  keep 
out  the  common  stock,  which  roamed  at  will 
on  the  common  land  outside. 

The  war  of  1675  is  called  "Philip's  War" 
because  Philip  was  able  to  incite  the  tribes  to 
hostilities  against  the  whites,  rather  than  be- 
cause it  was  carried  on  under  his  direction.  A 
seer  and  a  patriot  Philip  may  have  been,  but 
he  was  not  a  warrior.  It  is  not  known  that 
he  was  ever  in  a  single  conflict. 

When  the  first  blood  was  shed  at  far-away 
Swanzey,  in  June,  1675,  the  men  of  Pocum- 
tuck  were  not  disquieted.  With  the  Indians 
about  them  they  had  lived  for  years  in  perfect 
harmony.  But  when  the  blow  fell  on  Captains 
Beers  and  Lothrop  under  the  shadow  of  their 
own  Wequamps,  war  became  a  reality.  As  a 
measure  of  defense  two  or  three  houses  were 
slightly  fortified,  and  none  too  soon.  The 
village  was  marked  for  destruction.      On  the 


Deerfield  411 

morning  of  September  i,  1675,  the  Indians 
gathered  in  the  adjoining  woods,  awaiting 
the  hour  when  the  men,  scattered  about  the 
meadows  at  their  work  could  be  shot  down 
one  by  one,  leaving  the  women  and  children 
to  the  mercy  of  the  Indians.  This  plan  was 
frustrated.  The  Indians  were  discovered  early 
in  the  morning  by  James  Eggleston,  while 
looking  for  his  horse.  Eggleston  was  shot 
and  the  alarm  given.  The  people  fled  to  the 
forts.  These  were  easily  defended  by  the 
men,  but  beyond  the  range  of  their  muskets 
ruin  and  devastation  held  sway. 

Deerfield  was  the  first  town  in  the  Connecti- 
cut Valley  to  be  assaulted,  and  the  alarm  was 
general.  The  news  reached  Hadley  the  same 
day  while  the  inhabitants  were  gathered  in  the 
meeting-house  observing  a  fast ;  "  and,"  says 
Mather,  "  they  were  driven  from  the  holy  ser- 
vice they  were  attending  by  a  most  sudden  and 
violent  alarm  which  routed  them  the  whole  day 
after."  Their  alarm  and  rout  were  needless  ;  no 
enemy  appeared.  Yet  these  words  of  the  his- 
torian are  the  narrow  foundation  on  which 
Stiles  and  others  gradually  built  up  the  roman- 
tic myth  of  Goffe,  as  the  guardian  and  deliverer 
of  Hadley. 


412  Deerfield 

September  2,  the  tactics  at  Deerfield  were 
successfully  repeated  by  the  Indians  at  North- 
field.  Eight  men  were  killed  in  the  meadows, 
but  enoug["h  were  left  in  the  villacje  to  hold 
the  stockade.  September  4,  Captain  Richard 
Beers  with  his  company  who  were  marching  to 
their  relief,  were  surprised,  and  himself  and 
twenty  men  were  slain.  September  5,  Major 
Robert  Treat,  with  a  superior  force,  brought 
off  the  beleaofuered  survivors. 

Sunday,  September  12,  another  blow  fell 
upon  Deerfield.  The  place  had  now  a  garri- 
son under  Captain  Samuel  Appleton.  The 
Indians  could  see  from  the  hills  the  soldiers 
gathering  in  one  of  the  forts  for  public  wor- 
ship. They  laid  an  ambush  to  waylay  the 
soldiers  and  people  returning  after  service  to 
the  north  fort,  but  all  escaped  their  fire  save 
one,  who  was  wounded.  Nathaniel  Cornbury, 
left  to  sentinel  the  north  fort,  was  captured, 
and  never  again  heard  from.  Appleton  rallied 
his  men,  and  the  marauders,  after  inflicting 
much  loss  on  the  settlers,  drew  off  to  Pine  Hill. 

But  a  sadder  blow  was  to  fall  upon  the  dwell- 
ers in  this  little  vale.  The  accumulated  result 
of  their  industry  and  toil  was  to  disappear  in 
flame  and  ashes.      In  their  wanton  destruction 


Deerfield  413 

the  Indians  had  spared  the  wheat  in  the  field 
for  their  own  future  supply  ;  "  3000  bushels 
standing  in  stacks,"  says  Mather.  This  wheat 
was  needed  at  headquarters  to  feed  the  gath- 
ering troops,  and  Colonel  Pynchon,  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief, gave  orders  to  have  it  threshed 
and  sent  to  Hadley.  Captain  Thomas  Lothrop, 
with  his  company,  was  sent  to  convoy  the 
teams  transporting  it, 

September  18,  1675,  "that  most  fatal  day, 
the  saddest  that  ever  befel  New  England,"  says 
a  contemporary,  "  Captain  Lothrop,  with  his 
choice  company  of  young  men,  the  very  flower 
of  the  county  of  Essex,"  marched  boldly  down 
the  street,  across  South  Meadows,  up  Long 
Hill,  into  the  woods  stretching  away  to  Hat- 
field Meadows,  Confident  in  his  strength, 
scorning  the  enemy,  Captain  Lothrop  pushed 
on  through  the  narrow  path,  with  not  a  flanker 
or  vancruard  thrown  out.  Extendine  alone  his 
left  lay  a  swampy  thicket  through  which  crept 
a  nameless  brook.  Gradually,  the  swamp  nar- 
rowed, and  turned  to  the  right  across  the  line 
of  march.  At  this  spot  the  combined  force 
of  the  enemy  lay  in  ambush,  and  into  this  trap 
marched  Lothrop  and  his  men.  While  the 
teams  were  slowly  dragging  their  loads  through 


414  Deerfield 

the  mire,  It  is  said  the  soldiers  laid  down  their 
guns  to  pluck  and  eat  the  grapes  which  grew 
in  abundance  by  the  way.  Be  this  true  or  not, 
at  this  spot  they  were  surprised  and  stunned 
by  the  fierce  war-whoop,  the  flash  and  roar  of 
muskets  with  their  bolts  of  death.  Captain 
Lothrop  and  many  of  his  command  fell  at  the 
first  fire.  The  men  of  Pocumtuck  sank,  the 
"Flower  of  Essex"  wilted  before  the  blast, and — 

"  Sanguinetto  tells  ye  where  the  dead 
Made  the  earth  wet,  and  turn'd  the  unwilling  waters 
red." 

The  sluggish  stream  was  baptized  for  aye, 
"  Bloody  Brook." 

Captain  Samuel  Moseley,  who  was  search- 
ing the  woods  for  Indians,  hearing  the  firing, 
was  soon  on  the  ground.  Too  late  to  save, 
he  did  his  best  to  avenge  ;  he  charged  repeat- 
edly, scattering  the  enemy,  who  swarmed  as 
often  as  dispersed.  But  he  defied  all  their 
efforts  to  surround  him.  His  men  exhausted 
with  their  long  efforts,  Moseley  was  about  to 
retire,  when  just  in  the  nick  of  time  Major 
Treat  appeared,  with  a  force  of  English  and 
Mohegans.  The  enemy  were  driven  westward 
and  were  pursued  until  nightfall.     The  united 


^  Deerfield  415 

force  then  marched  to  Deerfield,  bearing  their 
wounded,  and  leaving  the  dead  where  they  fell. 

Mather  says,  "  this  was  a  black  and  fatal  day 
wherein  there  was  eight  persons  made  widows 
and  six  and  twenty  children  made  orphans,  all 
in  one  little  Plantation."  That  plantation  was 
Deerfield,  and  these  were  the  heavy  tidings 
which  the  worn-out  soldiers  carried  to  the 
stricken  survivors  of  the  hamlet.  Of  the  seven- 
teen fathers  and  brothers  who  left  them  in  the 
morning,  not  one  returned  to  tell  the  tale.  The 
next  morning,  Treat  and  Moseley  marched  to 
Bloody  Brook  and  buried  the  slain — "  64  men 
in  one  dreadful  grave."  The  names  of  sixty- 
three  are  known,  and  also  of  seven  wounded. 
John  Stebbins,  ancestor  of  the  Deerfield  tribe 
of  that  name,  is  the  only  man  in  Lothrop's 
command  known  to  have  escaped  unhurt. 

The  reported  force  of  the  enemy  was  a  thou- 
sand warriors,  and  their  loss  ninety-six.  This 
must  be  taken  with  a  grain  of  allowance. 

Deerfield  was  now  considered  untenable,  and 
the  poor  remnant  of  her  people  were  scattered 
in  the  towns  below. 

October  5,  Springfield  was  attacked.  The 
Indians  laid  the  same  plan  as  at  Deerfield  and 
Northfield.     Only  notice  given  by  a  friendly 


4i6  Deerfield 

Indian  during  the  night  before  saved  the  town 
from  total  destruction.  The  assailants  were 
Indians  who  had  lived  for  generations  neigh- 
bors and  friends  of  the  Springfield  people.  On 
the  4th  they  had  made  earnest  protestations  of 
friendship,  on  the  strength  of  which  the  garri- 
son had  marched  to  Hadley.  This  deliberate 
treachery  was  probably  planned  by  Philip. 

October  19,  a  large  party  made  an  attack  on 
Hatfield,  but  was  repulsed. 

As  the  spring  of  1676  advanced,  a  large  body 
of  Indians  collected  at  Peskeompskut  for  the 
purpose  of  catching  a  year's  stock  of  shad  and 
salmon.  Parties  from  thence  occasionally  har- 
assed the  settlers  below,  who  knew  that  when 
the  fishing  season  was  over,  the  enemy  would 
constantly  infest  the  valley,  and  watch  every 
chance  to  kill  the  unprotected.  They  there- 
fore determined  to  take  the  initiative,  and  at 
nightfall  of  May  18,  a  party  of  about  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  men  under  Captain  William 
Turner  made  a  night  march,  surprised  the 
camp  at  daylight  the  next  morning  and  de- 
stroyed many  of  the  enemy. 

The  homeward  march  was  delayed  so  long 
that  Indians  from  neighboring  camps  began 
to  appear.      A  released  captive  reported  that 


Deerfield  417 

Philip  with  a  thousand  warriors  was  at  hand, 
and  as  the  enemy  swarmed  on  rear  and  flank, 
the  retreat  became  almost  a  panic.  The  strag- 
gling and  the  wounded  were  cut  off.  Captain 
Turner  was  shot  while  crossing  Green  River, 
about  a  mile  from  the  battle-field,  and  the  party, 
under  Captain  Samuel  Holyoke,  reached  Hat- 
field with  the  loss  of  forty-two  men. 

The  warring  Indians  never  recovered  from 
the  blow  at  Peskeompskut.  Besides  their  slain, 
they  lost  their  year's  stock  of  fish,  and  the  hun- 
dreds of  acres  of  Indian  corn  they  had  planted 
with  the  assurance  of  a  permanent  abode  in 
that  region.  The  broken,  disheartened  clans 
drifted  aimlessly  eastward.  They  quarrelled 
among  themselves.  Philip,  with  a  few  follow- 
ers, skulked  back  to  Pokanoket,  where  he  fell, 
August  12,  1676.     The  war  ended  soon  after. 

In  the  spring  of  1677,  some  of  the  old  set- 
tlers came  back  and  planted  their  deserted 
fields  ;  preparations  for  building  were  well  ad- 
vanced by  some  of  the  more  venturesome, 
when,  September  19,  they  were  surprised  by 
Ashpelon  with  a  party  of  Indians  from  Canada, 
and  all  were  either  killed  or  captured. 

In  1679  the  General  Court  passed  an  act 
regulating  the  resettlement  of  deserted  towns, 


4i8  Deerfield 

requiring  the  consent  of  certain  authorities  who 
should  prescribe 

"  In  what  form,  way  &  manner,  such  townes  shallbe 
settled  &  erected,  wherein  they  are  required  to  haue  a 
principal  respect  to  neerness  and  conveniency  of  habita- 
tion for  securitie  against  enemyes  &  more  comfort  for 
Xtian  comunion  &  enjoyment  of  God's  worship  &  educa- 
tion of  children  in  schools  &  civility." 

By  virtue  of  this  act  a  committee  was  appointed 
under  whose  direction  a  resettlement  of  the 
town  began  in  the  spring  of  1682.  Induced  by 
grants  of  land,  new  settlers  appeared,  and  the 
plantation  progressed  rapidly.  In  1686,  sixty 
Proprietors  are  named.  This  year,  young  John 
Williams  appears  on  the  scene  as  candidate 
for  the  ministry;  and,  September  21,  he  re- 
ceived a  "call."  He  was  married  July  20, 
1687,  to  Eunice,  daughter  of  Rev,  Eleazer 
Mather,  of  Northampton,  October  18,  1688, 
he  was  ordained,  and  the  First  Church  was 
organized. 

The  second  meeting-house  was  built  in  1684, 
the  third  in  1695,  the  fourth,  a  very  elaborate 
one,  in  i  729,  the  fifth,  the  present  brick  struct- 
ure, in  1824,  and  it  is  still  occupied  by  the  First 
Church.  In  all  these,  save  the  last,  the  wor- 
shippers were  "seated"  by  authority. 


Deerfield 


419 


In  1688,  on  the  news  of  the  Revolution  in 
England,  the  seizure  of  Andros  in  Boston  and 
the  call  for  the  election  of  representatives  to 
organize  anew  government  for  the  Colony,  the 


THIRD    MEETINQ-HOUSE,   1695-1729. 

Cold    INDIAN    HOUSE    ON    THE    RIGHT.) 

men  of  Deerfield  acted  promptly.  Lieutenant 
Thomas  Wells,  a  commissioned  officer  under 
Andros,  was  selected  to  represent  the  town, 
and  the  selectmen  sent  to  Boston  a  certificate 
to  that  effect.     These  men  were  fully  aware 


420  Deerfield 

that  in  the  case  of  a  failure  of  the  movement, 
the  vindictive  Andros  would  wreak  his  venge- 
ance upon  all  concerned.  Shrewd  men  were 
at  the  fore,  and  Randolph  himself  might  search 
the  town  records  in  vain  for  any  trace  of  these 
proceedings  or  other  treasonable  action. 

During  King  William's  War,  the  town  was 
harassed  by  the  enemy  ;  drought  and  insects 
ruined  the  crops,  and  a  fatal  distemper  pre- 
vailed. There  was  question  of  deserting  the 
place,  but  bolder  counsels  controlled.  Baron 
Castine  with  an  army  from  Canada  attempted 
a  surprise  of  the  town,  September  15,  1694, 
but  he  was  discovered  just  in  time  to  close 
the  gates,  and  was  driven  back  with  small 
loss  to  the  defenders.  Another  army  organ- 
ized in  Canada  for  the  same  purpose  turned 
back  on  being  discovered  by  scouts.  During 
this  trial  Deerfield  suffered  great  losses,  but 
pluck  carried  her  through. 

Queen  Anne's  War  broke  out  in  i  702.  The 
population  here  was  about  three  hundred  souls. 
The  fortifications  on  Meeting-house  Hill  were 
strengthened,  and  the  house  of  the  commander, 
Captain  Wells,  about  forty  rods  south,  was 
palisaded.  In  May,  1703,  Lord  Cornbury, 
Governor  of  New  York,  sent  word  that  he  had 


422  Deerfield 

learned  through  his  spies  of  an  expedition  fit- 
ting out  against  Deerfield.  Soon  after,  Major 
Peter  Schuyler  sent  a  similar  warning  to  Rev. 
John  Williams,  These  warnings  were  em- 
phasized in  July  by  news  that  the  Eastern 
Indians  had  made  a  simultaneous  attack  on 
all  the  settlements  in  Maine,  only  six  weeks 
after  signing  a  treaty  of  peace  with  the  most 
solemn  declarations  of  eternal  friendship. 
Twenty  soldiers  were  sent  here  to  reinforce 
the  home  guard,  and  all  were  on  the  alert  ; 
two  men,  however,  were  captured  October  8, 
and  were  carried  to  Canada.  On  the  alarm 
which  followed  sixteen  more  men  were  sent 
here.  October  21,  Rev.  John  Williams  writes, 
on  behalf  of  the  town,  to  Governor  Dudley  : 

"...  We  have  been  driven  from  our  houses  & 
home  lots  into  the  fort,  (there  are  but  10  houselots  in  the 
fort)  ;  some  a  mile,  some  two  miles,  whereby  we  have 
suffered  much  loss.  We  have  in  the  alarms  several  times 
been  wholly  taken  off  from  any  business,  the  whole  town 
kept  in,  our  children  of  12  or  13  years  and  under  we 
have  been  afraid  to  improve  in  the  field  for  fear  of  the 
enemy.  .  .  .  We  have  been  crowded  togather  into 
houses  to  the  preventing  of  indoor  affairs  being  carryd 
on  to  any  advantage,  .  .  .  several  say  they  would 
freely  leave  all  they  have  &  go  away  were  it  not  that  it 
would  be   disobedience  to  authority   &:   a  discouraging 


423  DOOR    OF 


'old    INDIAN    HOUSE"    riAGKtD    bY    INDIANS. 
NOW  IN  MEMORIAL  HALL. 


424  Deerfield 

their  bretheren.  The  frontier  difificulties  of  a  place  so 
remote  from  others  &  so  exposed  as  ours,  are  more  than 
can  be  known,  if  not  felt.     .     .     ." 

Nothing  can  add  to  this  simple  and  pathetic 
statement. 

The  months  dragged  slowly  on,  and  no  en- 
emy. The  deep  winter  snows  seemed  a  safe 
barrier  against  invasion.  The  people,  breath- 
ing more  freely,  gradually  resumed  their  wonted 
ways  ;  but  dark  clouds  loomed  up,  all  unseen, 
just  beyond  the  northern  horizon.  In  the 
early  morning  of  February  29,  1 703-4,  like  a 
thunderbolt  from  a  clear  sky,  an  army  of 
French  and  Indians  under  Hertel  de  Rouville 
burst  upon  the  sleeping  town,  and  killed  or 
captured  nearly  all  of  the  garrison  and  inhabit- 
ants within  the  fort.  Through  criminal  care- 
lessness the  snow  had  been  allowed  to  drift 
against  the  palisades,  until,  being  covered  with 
a  hard  crust,  it  afforded  an  easy  and  noiseless 
entrance,  so  that  the  enemy  were  dispersed 
among  the  houses  before  they  were  discovered. 

The  captives  were  collected  in  the  house  of 
Ensign  John  Sheldon,  which,  being  fired  by  the 
enemy  only  on  their  retreat,  was  easily  saved, 
and  stood  until  1848.  It  was  popularly  con- 
sidered the  only  one  not  burned,  and  has  gone 


426  Deerfield 

into  history  as  the  "  Old  Indian  House." 
Its  front  door,  hacked  by  the  Indians,  is  now 
preserved  in  Memorial  Hall.  By  sunrise 
the  torch  and  tomahawk  had  done  their 
work.  The  blood  of  forty-nine  murdered  men, 
women  and  children  reddened  the  snow. 
Twenty-nine  men,  twenty-four  women  and 
fifty-eight  children  were  made  captive,  and  in 
a  few  hours  the  spoil-encumbered  enemy  were 
on  their  three-hundred  miles'  march  over  the 
desolate  snows  to  Canada.  Twenty  of  the  cap- 
tives were  murdered  on  the  route,  one  of  them 
Eunice  Williams,  wife  of  the  minister.  The 
spot  where  she  fell  is  marked  by  a  monument 
of  endurinor  orranite. 

The  desolated  town  was  at  once  made  a  mili- 
tary post,  and  strongly  garrisoned.  Of  the  sur- 
vivors, the  men  were  impressed  into  the  service, 
and  the  non-combatants  sent  to  the  towns  be- 
low. Persistent  efforts  were  made  to  recover 
the  captives.  Ensign  Sheldon  was  sent  three 
times  to  Canada  on  this  errand.  One  by  one, 
and  against  great  odds,  most  of  the  surviving 
men  and  women  were  recovered  ;  but  a  large 
proportion  of  the  children  remained  in  Can- 
ada. Many  of  their  descendants  have  been 
traced  by  Miss  Baker,  author  of  Tj-ue  Stories 


Deerfield  427 

of  New  England  Captives,  among  them  some 
of  the  most  distinguished  men  and  women  of 
Canadian  history. 

The  inhabitants  of  Deerfield  gradually  re- 
turned to  their  desolate  hearthstones  and 
abandoned  fields,  and  held  their  own  during 
the  war,  but  not  without  severe  sufferinor  and 
a  considerable  loss  of  life.  Peace  was  estab- 
lished by  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  in  1713. 

Nine  years  of  quiet  followed,  in  which  the 
town  prospered.  The  Indians  mingled  freely 
with  the  people,  bartering  the  products  of  their 
hunting  for  English  goods.  A  permanent 
peace  was  hoped  for,  but  this  hope  was  blasted 
on  the  outbreak  of  the  Eastern  Indians  in  1 722. 
Incited  by  the  Canadians,  the  northern  tribes 
joined  in  the  war ;  and  Father  Rasle's  war 
brouofht  the  usual  frontier  scenes  of  fire  and 
carnage  ;  the  trading  Indians  being  the  most 
effective  leaders  or  guides  for  marauding  par- 
ties. Many  Deerfield  men  were  in  the  ser- 
vice, notably  as  scouts.  Inured  to  hardship, 
skilled  in  woodcraft,  they  were  more  than  a 
match  for  the  savage  in  his  own  haunts  and  in 
his  own  methods  of  warfare. 

In  1729,  before  the  new  meeting-house  was 
finished,  the  people  were  called  to  mourn  the 


428 


Deerfield 


death  of  their  loved  and  revered  pastor.  Rev. 
John  WilHams,  so  widely  known  as  "The 
Redeemed  Captive."  His  successor  was  Rev. 
Jonathan  Ashley,  who  was  ordained  in  1732 
and  died  in  1780. 


STEPHEN    WILLIAMS,    1693-1782. 

A  CAPTIVE  OF  FEBRUARY  29,    1703-4. 


Rev.  Stephen  Williams,  a  son  of  Rev.  John 
Williams,  the  first  pastor,  was  born  in  Deer- 
field  in  1693,  taken  captive  to  Canada  in  1704, 


Deerfield  429 

redeemed  in  1 705,  graduated  at  Harvard  in 
1 713,  settled  as  minister  at  Longmeadow  in 
1 716,  dying  there  in  1782  ;  he  was  Chaplain  in 
the  Louisburg  expedition  in  1745,  and  in  the 
regiment  of  Col.  Ephraim  Williams  in  his  fatal 
campaign  in  1755,  and  again  in  the  Canadian 
campaign  of  i  756.  His  portrait,  reproduced  on 
page  428,  was  painted  about  1748  ;  it  is  now  in 
the  Memorial  Hall  of  the  Pocumtuck  Valley 
Memorial  Association,  within  fourscore  rods  of 
the  spot  where  the  original  was  born,  and 
whence  he  was  carried  into  captivity. 

On  the  closing  of  Father  Rasle's  war  the 
settlement  expanded  ;  trade  and  home  manu- 
factures flourished.  Deerfield  remained  no 
longer  the  frontier  town  of  the  valley,  and  the 
brunt  of  the  next  border  war  (of  i  743)  was  felt 
by  the  outlying  settlements.  The  one  sad  blow 
upon  this  town  fell  at  a  little  hamlet  called 
The  Bars.  August  25,  1746,  the  families  of 
Samuel  Allen  and  John  Amsden,  while  work- 
ing in  a  hay-field  on  Stebbins  Meadow,  with 
a  small  guard,  were  surprised  by  a  party  of  In- 
dians from  Canada,  and  five  men  were  killed, 
one  girl  wounded  and  one  boy  captured. 
This  followed  close  on  the  fall  of  Fort  Massa- 
chusetts, and  danger  of   French  invasion  was 


430  Deerfield 

felt  to  be  imminent.  Active  measures  were 
taken  for  defense  ;  the  forts  were  repaired  and 
the  woods  filled  with  scouts. 

The  closing  war  with  France  found  Deerfield 
more  strongly  bulwarked,  and  still  less  exposed 
to  attack.  No  blood  was  shed  within  her  nar- 
rowed bounds.  Her  citizens  held  prominent 
positions,  and  did  their  part  in  the  campaigns 
which  resulted  in  the  conquest  of  Canada  and 
the  consequent  immunity  from  savage  depreda- 
tions. The  nest  destroyed,  the  sting  of  the 
hornets  was  no  longer  felt  or  feared.  The 
last  raid  on  Massachusetts  soil  is  described  in 
the  following  mutilated  despatch  to  the  military 
authorities  in  Deerfield  : 

"  CoLRAiN,  March  y«  2r,  1759. 

"Sir  : — These  are  to  inform  you  that  yesterday  as  Jo* 
McKoon  [Kowen]  &  his  wife  were  coming  from 
Daniel  Donitsons  &  had  got  so  far  as  where  Morrison's 
house  was  burned  this  day  year,  they  was  fired  upon  by 
the  enemy  about  sunset.  I  have  been  down  this  morn- 
ing on  the  spot  and  find  no  Blood  Shed,  but  see  where 
they  led  off  Both  the  above  mentioned  ;  they  had  their 
little  child  with  them.  I  believe  they  are  gone  home. 
I  think  their  number  small,  for  there  was  about  10  or  12 
came  [torn  off]  " 

The    most    important  civil    events    of   this 


Deerfield  431 

period  were  the  divisions  of  the  township.  In 
1753  the  Green  River  District,  which  included 
what  is  now  Greenfield  and  Gill,  was  made  a 
distinct  municipality.  The  next  year  the  con- 
struction of  a  bridge  over  the  Pocumtuck  River 
at  Cheapside  was  a  prominent  issue  ;  the  dis- 
cussion ended  in  establishing  a  ferry  at  the 
north  end  of  Pine  Hill  in  i  758.  That  year  the 
people  in  the  vicinity  of  Sugar  Loaf  petitioned 
the  General  Court — but  without  success — for 
liberty  to  form  a  ministerial  and  educational 
connection  with  the  town  of  Sunderland,  and 
to  be  exempted  from  paying  certain  town  taxes 
in  consequence.  In  1767  the  inhabitants  of 
Deerfield-Southwest  were  set  off  into  a  town 
named  Conway  ;  and  Deerfield-Northwest  be- 
came the  town  of  Shelburne  in  1 768.  The 
same  year  Bloody  Brook  people  caught  the 
division  fever,  but  it  did  not  carry  them  off. 

A  permanent  peace  being  settled  and  an  un- 
stable currency  fixed  on  a  firm  cash  basis,  busi- 
ness projects  multiplied,  and  Deerfield  became 
the  centre  of  exchange  and  supply  for  a  large 
territory.  The  mechanics,  or  "  tradesmen  " 
as  they  were  called,  and  their  apprentices, 
rivalled  in  numbers  the  agricultural  population. 
Here  were  found    the    gunsmith,   blacksmith. 


432  Deerfield 

nailer  and  silversmith,  the  maker  of  snow- 
shoes  and  moccasins,  the  tanner,  currier,  shoe- 
maker and  saddler,  the  pillion,  knapsack  and 
wallet-maker,  the  carpenter  and  joiner,  the  clap- 
board and  shingle-maker,  the  makers  of  wooden 
shovels,  corn-fans,  flax-brakes,  hackels,  looms 
and  spinning-wheels,  cart-ropes  and  bed-lines, 
and  pewter  buttons,  the  tailor,  hatter,  furrier, 
feltmaker,  barber  and  wigmaker,  the  cart- 
wright,  millwright,  cabinet-maker,  watchmaker, 
the  brickmaker  and  mason,  the  miller,  the 
carder,  clothier,  fuller,  spinner,  weaver  of  duck 
and  common  fabrics,  the  potter,  the  grave- 
stone-cutter, the  cooper,  the  potash-maker,  the 
skilled  forger  who  turned  out  loom  and  plow 
irons,  farm  and  kitchen  utensils.  There  were 
doctors  and  lawyers,  the  judge  and  the  sheriff ; 
storekeepers  were  many,  and  tavern-keepers 
galore.  To  all  these  the  old  account-books  in 
Memorial  Hall  bear  testimony. 

Many  leading  men  held  commissions  from 
the  King  in  both  civil  and  military  service. 
These  were  rather  a  distinctive  class,  holding 
their  heads  quite  high,  and  when  the  Revolu- 
tion broke  out  they  were  generally  loyal  to  the 
King,  making  heavy  odds  against  the  Whigs. 
But  new  leaders  came  to  the  front,  who,  so  far 


Deerfield  433 

as  they  had  character  and  force,  held  their  own 
after  the  war,  and  the  old  Tory  leaders  were 
relegated  to  the  rear. 

At  the  opening  of  the  Revolutionary  War 
the  parties  were  nearly  equal  in  numbers  ;  on 
one  yea  and  nay  test  vote  there  was  a  tie.  Ex- 
citement ran  high.  In  1774  the  "Sons  of 
Liberty "  erected  a  Liberty  Pole,  and  at  the 
same  time  a  "  Tory  Pole,"  whatever  that  might 
be.  The  mob  spirit  was  rampant.  Through 
it  the  fires  of  patriotism  found  vent ;  but  it  was 
always  under  the  control  of  the  leaders,  and 
its  most  common  office  was  to  "  humble  the 
Tories,"  and  compel  them  to  sign  obnoxious 
declarations  of  neutrality,  or  of  submission  to 
the  will  of  the  Committees  of  Safety  and  Cor- 
respondence. A  Tory  of  this  period  wrote  : 
"  Oh  Tempora,  all  nature  seems  to  be  in  con- 
fusion ;  every  person  in  fear  of  what  his  Neigh- 
bor may  do  to  him.  Such  times  never  was 
seen  in  New  England." 

In  October,  1774,  a  company  of  minute-men 
was  organized  here  as  part  of  a  regiment 
under  the  Provincial  Congress.  November  14, 
staff-officers  were  chosen.  David  Field,  colo- 
nel, and  David  Dickinson,  major,  were  both 
of   Deerfield.      December  5,   the  town  raised 


434  Deerfield 

money  to  buy  ammunition  by  selling  lumber 
from  its  woodland.  January  5,  1775,  an  emis- 
sary from  General  Gage  was  here,  advising 
the  Tories  to  go  to  Boston.  "  The  standard 
will  be  set  up  in  March,"  he  said,  "  and  those 
who  do  not  go  in  and  lay  down  their  arms 
may  meet  with  bad  luck."  He  was  discovered, 
but  had  the  good  luck  to  escape  a  mob  ;  an- 
other agent  who  came  a  few  days  later  was  not 
so  fortunate. 

But  the  culmination  of  all  the  secret  machi- 
nations and  open  preparations  was  at  hand. 
April  20,  at  a  town-meeting,  votes  were  passed 
to  pay  wages  to  the  minute-men  for  what  they 
had  done  ;  "  to  encourage  them  in  perfecting 
themselves  in  the  Military  Art,"  provision  was 
made  for  "  practicing  one  half-day  in  each 
week." 

The  voters  could  hardly  have  left  the  meet- 
ing-house, when  the  sound  of  a  galloping  horse 
was  heard,  and  the  hoarse  call,  "  To  arms  !  To 
arms  ! "  broke  upon  the  air.  The  horse  bloody 
with  spurring  and  the  rider  covered  with  dust 
brought  the  news  of  Concord  and  Lexington. 
The  half-day  drills  had  done  their  work.  Be- 
fore the  clock  in  the  meeting-house  steeple 
struck    the  midnight    hour,  fifty   minute-men. 


Deerfield  435 

under  Captain  Jonas  Locke,  Lieutenant 
Thomas  Bardwell  and  Lieutenant  Joseph 
Stebbins,  were  on  the  march  to  Cambridge. 
This  company  was  soon  broken  up  ;  Captain 
Locke  entered  the  Commissary  Department, 
while  Lieutenant  Stebbins  enhsted  a  new  com- 
pany, with  which  he  assisted  General  Putnam 
in  constructing  the  redoubt  on  Bunker  Hill,  and 
in  its  defense  the  next  day,  the  ever-glorious 
17th  of  June.  One  Deerfield  man  was  killed 
and  several  were  wounded. 

Independence  Day  should  be  celebrated, 
in  Deerfield,  June  26,  for  on  that  day  in  1776 
the  town 

"  Voted  that  this  Town  will  ( if  y'  Hotiorable  Congress 
shall  for  y'  safety  of  y'  United  Colonies  declare  them  In- 
dependent of  y'  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain)  Solemnly 
Engage  with  their  Lives  and  Fortunes  to  Support  them  in 
y'  Measure,  and  that  y*  Clerk  be  directed  to  make  an 
attested  copy  of  this  Vote  and  forward  y^  same  to  Mr. 
Saxton,  Representative  for  this  town,  to  be  laid  before 
the  General  Court  for  their  Information." 

Here  was  treason  proclaimed  and  recorded, 
and  every  voter  was  exposed  to  its  penalty. 
Ten  days  later  the  Continental  Congress 
issued  the  world-stirring  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence. 


43^  Deerfield 

On  Burgoyne's  invasion  in  1777  a  company 
under  Captain  Josepli  Stebbins  and  Lieuten- 
ant John  Bardwell  marched  for  Bennington. 
They  were  too  late  for  the  battle  at  Walloom- 
sack,  and  found  the  meeting-house  filled  with 
Stark's  Hessian  prisoners.  But  they  had  their 
share  in  the  work  and  glory  of  rounding  up 
and  capturing  the  proud  soldiers  of  Burgoyne. 

Deerfield  had  statesmen  as  well  as  soldiers. 
May  I,  1780,  the  town  met  to  consider  the  new 
Constitution  of  Massachusetts ;  the  clerk  read 
the  instrument  "  paragraph  by  paragraph  with 
pauses  between."  After  due  discussion,  a  com- 
mittee was  chosen  to  "  peruse  the  Constitution 
.  .  .  and  make  such  objections  to  it  as  they 
think  ought  to  be  made."  Three  town-meetings 
were  held,  the  committee  reported,  and  finally 
a  vote  was  passed  "  not  to  accept  the  third  Arti- 
cle in  the  Declaration  of  Rights,"  and  that  a 
candidate  for  governor  must  "  Declare  himself 
of  the  Protestant  Reliction  "  instead  of  "  Christ- 
ian  Religion."  The  term  of  eight  years  in- 
stead of  fifteen  was  voted  as  the  time  when  the 
Constitution  should  be  revised.  With  these 
changes,  our  civic  wisdom  approved  of  this 
important  State  paper. 

Deerfield  did  her  full  duty  in  furnishing  her 


Deerfield 


437 


quota  of  men  and  supplies  through  the  war. 
Occasionally,  in  the  later  years  of  the  struggle, 


^^^-^..i^^^:,^   ^^^'^^-^-t^^^ 


1822-1884. 


the  Tories  temporarily  obstructed  the  necessary 
town  legislation.     Some  of  these  soon  found 


43^  Deerfield 

themselves  behind  the  bars,  and  others  in  en- 
forced silence  under  penalty  of  like  restraint. 
The  minister,  Mr.  Ashley,  who  had  been  firm 
in  his  loyalty,  died  in  i  780,  and  the  Tories  lost 
one  of  their  strongest  supports.  Not  until 
1787  could  the  town  unite  upon  his  successor, 
when  Rev.  John  Taylor  was  ordained.  The 
uprising  called  Shays'  Rebellion  did  much  to 
harmonize  the  warring  factions,  as  all  united  to 
put  it  down.  Three  companies,  under  Cap- 
tains Joseph  Stebbins,  Samuel  Childs  and 
Thomas  W.  Dickinson,  were  sent  to  the  field 
of  action. 

From  this  time,  harmony  prevailed,  and  the 
career  of  the  town  was  that  of  an  industrious, 
hard-working,  prosperous,  intellectual  people. 
Libraries  and  literary  societies  were  estab- 
lished, which  are  still  flourishing.  Deerfield 
Academy  was  founded  in  1797,  and  endowed 
largely  through  the  liberality  of  the  citizens. 
Its  influence  was  felt  for  generations,  as  its 
pupils  from  far  and  wide  were  scions  of  leading 
families.  Among  its  faculty  and  graduates  may 
be  named  men  of  national  reputation,  in  the 
scientific,  the  historical,  the  ecclesiastical,  the 
military,  the  artistic  and  the  industrial  world. 

Failing  health  obliged  Mr.  Taylor  to  resign  ; 


BUFFET  FROM  PARSON  WILLIAMS'S  HOUSE. 

NOW  IN   MEMORIAL  HALL. 


439 


440  Deerfield 

and  in  1807  the  Rev.  Samuel  Willard  suc- 
ceeded him  in  the  ministry,  when,  in  the  separa- 
tion of  the  Congregational  churches,  Deerfield 
led  the  van  on  the  liberal  side. 

The  political  storms  of  the  first  two  decades 
of  the  century  raged  here  with  strength  and 
vigor.  In  the  War  of  1 812  a  "  Professor  of  the 
Art  of  War  "  was  added  to  the  faculty  of  the 
Deerfield  Academy,  and  a  Peace  Party  circu- 
lated their  protesting  publications. 

Deerfield  was  early  at  the  front  in  the  anti- 
slavery  agitation,  and  in  the  war  lost  some  of 
her  best  blood.  The  names  of  her  dead  in 
that  righteous  war  are  carved  on  a  fitting 
monument  pointing  aloft  from  the  midst  of 
her  ancient  trainine-field. 

One  great  attraction  in  the  old  town  is  the 
Pocumtuck  Valley  Memorial  Association,  char- 
tered in  1870.  It  owns  and  occupies  the  old 
academy  building,  which  it  secured  when  the 
new  Free  Dickinson  Academy  was  established 
in  1878.  Its  museum  occupies  the  entire  struct- 
ure, and  contains  an  exhaustive,  characteristic 
collection  of  the  implements,  utensils  and 
general  household  belongings  of  the  colonial 
days ;  and  also  of  the  original  lords  of  the 
valley,  the  Pocumtuck  Indians. 


Deerfield  44i 

In  the  ante-railroad  days,  Cheapside,  at  the 
head  of  Pocumtuck  River  navigation,  was  a 
thriving  business  village,  with  large  imports  of 
foreign  wet  and  dry  goods,  and  large  exports 
of  lumber,  woodenware  and  brooms ;  Deer- 
field  was  long  famous  for  its  stall-fed  beef,  as 
many  a  New  York  and  Boston  epicure  did 
testify  ;  but  the  advent  of  the  iron  horse  soon 
brought  about  the  departure  of  the  fall  boat, 
and  the  passing  of  the  stall-fed  ox.  The  old 
town  is  no  longer  a  centre  of  political  power, 
or  of  trade  and  manufactures.  The  generous 
additions  of  territory  to  her  original  Grant 
have  been  bestowed  upon  the  children  of  her 
loins,  now  flourishing  towns  about  her.  The 
advent  of  factories  has  absorbed  one  by  one 
her  multifarious  mechanical  industries.  Her 
young  men  and  maidens  are  seeking  elsewhere 
spheres  of  action  in  fields  till  now  undreamed 
of. 

But  Old  Deerfield  still  retains  much  of  her 
best.  Still,  as  of  old,  she  is  an  intellectual 
centre.  Still  beautifully  situated,  she  lies  in 
the  embrace  of  the  broad  green  meadows,  with 
here  and  there  a  gleam  of  silver  from  the  sinu- 
ous Pocumtuck.  Her  ancient  houses,  shadowed 
by  towering  elms,  hoary  with  age,  her  charm- 


442  Deerfield 

ing  wooded  heights,  her  romantic  gorges  and 
tumbling  brooks,  her  restful  quiet,  her  famous 
past,  all  in  harmony  with  the  thought  and 
feeling  of  her  inhabitants,  still  attract  alike 
men  and  women  of  letters,  the  artist  and  the 
historical  student. 


NEWPORT 

THE  ISLE  OF  PEACE 
By  SUSAN    COOLIDGE 

THE  Isle  of  Peace  lies  cradled  in  the  wide 
arms  of  a  noble  bay.  Fifteen  miles  long 
and  from  four  to  five  miles  in  width,  its  shape 
is  not  unlike  that  of  an  heraldic  dragon,  laid 
at  ease  in  the  blue  waters,  with  head  pointed 
to  the  southwest.  From  this  head  to  the  jut- 
ting cape  which  does  duty  as  the  left  claw  of 
the  beast,  the  shore  is  a  succession  of  bold 
cliffs,  broken  by  coves  and  stretches  of  rocky 
shingle,  and  in  two  places  by  magnificent  curv- 
ing beaches,  upon  which  a  perpetual  surf 
foams  and  thunders.  Parallel  ridges  of  low 
hills  run  back  from  the  sea.  Between  these 
lie  ferny  vallej/s,  where  wild  roses  grow  in 
thickets,  and  such  shy  flowers  as  love  solitude 
and  a  sheltered  situation  spread  a  carpet  for 
the  spring  and  early  summer.     On  the  farther 

443 


444  Newport 

uplands  are  thrifty  farms,  set  amid  orchards 
of  wind-blown  trees.  Ravines,  each  with  its 
thread  of  brook,  cut  their  way  from  these 
higher  levels  to  the  water-line.  Fleets  of  lilies 
whiten  the  ponds,  of  which  there  are  many  on 
the  island  ;  and  over  all  the  scene,  softening 
every  outline,  tingeing  and  changing  the  sun- 
light, and  creating  a  thousand  beautiful  effects 
forever  unexpected  and  forever  renewed, 
hangs  a  thin  veil  of  shifting  mist.  This  the  sea- 
wind,  as  it  journeys  to  and  fro,  lifts  and  drops, 
and  lifts  again,  as  one  raises  a  curtain  to  look 
in  at  the  slumber  of  a  child,  and,  having  looked, 
noiselessly  lets  it  fall. 

The  Indians,  with  that  fine  occasional  in- 
stinct which  is  in  such  odd  contrast  to  other  of 
their  characteristics,  gave  the  place  its  pretty 
name.  Aquidneck,  the  Isle  of  Peace,  they 
called  it.  To  modern  men  it  is  known  as  the 
island  of  Rhode  Island,  made  famous  the 
land  over  by  the  town  built  on  its  seaward 
extremity — the  town  of   Newport. 

It  is  an  old  town,  and  its  history  dates  back 
to  the  early  days  of  the  New  England  col- 
ony. City,  it  calls  itself,  but  one  loves  bet- 
ter to  think  of  it  as  a  town,  just  as  the  word 
"  avenue,"  now  so  popular,   is  in  some  minds 


44^  Newport 

forever  translated  into  the  simpler  equivalent, 
"  street."  As  the  veiling  mists  gather  and 
shift,  and  then,  caught  by  the  outgoing  breeze, 
float  seaward  again,  we  catch  glimpses,  framed, 
as  it  were,  between  the  centuries,  quaint,  oddly 
differing  from  each  other,  but  full  of  interest. 
The  earliest  of  these  glimpses  dates  back  to 
an  April  morning  in  1524.  There  is  the  cliff- 
line,  the  surf,  the  grassy  capes  tinged  with  sun, 
and  in  the  sheltered  bay  a  strange  little  vessel 
is  dropping  her  anchor.  It  is  the  caravel  of 
Vezzerano,  pioneer  of  French  explorers  in 
these  northern  waters,  and  first  of  that  great 
tide  of  "  summer  visitors "  which  has  since 
followed  in  his  wake.  How  he  was  received, 
and  by  whom,  Mr.  Parkman  tells  us  : 

"  Following  the  shores  of  Long  Island,  they  came 
first  to  Block  Island,  and  thence  to  the  harbor  of  New- 
port. Here  they  stayed  fifteen  days,  most  courteously  re- 
ceived by  the  inhabitants.  Among  others,  appeared  two 
chiefs,  gorgeously  arrayed  in  painted  deer-skins  ;  kings, 
as  Vezzerano  calls  them,  with  attendant  gentlemen  ; 
while  a  party  of  squaws  in  a  canoe,  kept  by  their  jealous 
lords  at  a  safe  distance,  figure  in  the  narrative  as  the 
queen  and  her  maids.  The  Indian  wardrobe  had  been 
taxed  to  its  utmost  to  do  the  strangers  honor, — coffee 
bracelets  and  wampum  collars,  lynx-skins,  raccoon-skins, 
and  faces  bedaubed  with  gaudy  colors. 


448  Newport 

"  Again  they  spread  their  sails,  and  on  the  fifth  of 
May  bade  farewell  to  the  primitive  hospitalities  of  New- 
port.'" 

Wampum  and  coffee  bracelets  are  gone 
out  of  fashion  since  then,  the  appHcation  of 
"  gaudy  colors  "  to  faces,  though  not  altogether 
done  away  with,  is  differently  practised  and  to 
better  effect,  and  squaws  are  no  longer  relega- 
ted by  their  jealous  lords  to  separate  and  dis- 
tant canoes  ;  but  the  reputation  for  hospitality, 
so  early  won,  Newport  still  retains,  as  many  a 
traveller  since  Vezzerano  has  had  occasion  to 
testify.  And  still,  when  the  early  summer- 
tide  announces  the  approach  of  strangers,  her 
inhabitants,  decking  themselv^es  in  their  best 
and  bravest,  go  forth  to  welcome  and  to 
"  courteously  entreat  "  all  new  arrivals. 

Aofain  the  mist  lifts  and  reveals  another 
picture.  Two  centuries  have  passed.  The 
sachems  and  their  squaws  have  vanished,  and 
on  the  hill-slope  where  once  their  lodges  stood 
a  town  has  sprung  up.  Warehouses  line  the 
shores  and  wharves,  at  which  lie  whalers  and 
merchantmen  loading  and  discharging  their 
cargoes.  A  large  proportion  of  black  faces 
appears  among  the  passers-by  in   the   streets, 

'  Pioneers  of  Frniue  in  the  Netv  IVorla. 


Newport  449 

and  many  straight-skirted  coats,  broad-brimmed 
hats,  gowns  of  sober  hue  and  poke-bonnets  of 
drab.  Friends  abound  as  well  as  negroes,  not 
to  mention  Jews,  Moravians,  Presbyterians 
and  "  Six-Principle  "  and  "  Seven-Principle  " 
Baptists ;  for,  under  the  mild  fostering  of 
Roger  Williams,  Newport  has  become  a  city 
of  refuge  to  religious  malcontents  of  every 
persuasion.  All  the  population,  however,  is 
not  of  like  sobriety.  A  "  rage  of  finery  "  dis- 
tinguishes the  aristocracy  of  the  island,  and 
silk-stockinged  gentlemen,  with  scarlet  coats 
and  swords,  silver-buckled  shoes  and  lace  ruf- 
fles, may  be  seen  in  abundance,  exchanging 
stately  greetings  with  ladies  in  brocades  and 
hoops,  as  they  pass  to  and  fro  between  the 
decorous  gambrel-roofed  houses  or  lift  the 
brazen  knockers  of  the  street-doors.  It  is  a 
Saint's-Day,  and  on  the  hill  above,  in  a  quaint 
edifice  of  white-painted  wood,  with  Queen 
Anne's  royal  crown  and  a  gilded  pennon  on  its 
spire,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Honeyman,  missionary 
of  the  English  Society  for  the  Propagation  of 
the  Gospel,  is  conducting  the  service  in  Trinity 
Church.  The  sermon  begins,  but  is  inter- 
rupted by  a  messenger  who  hurries  in  with  a 
letter  which  he  hands  to  the  divine  in  the  pul- 


450  Newport 

pit.  The  clergyman  reads  it  aloud  to  his  audi- 
ence, pronounces  a  rapid  benediction,  and 
"wardens,  vestry,  church  and  congregation" 
crowd  to  the  ferry-wharf,  off  which  lies  a 
"  pretty  large  ship,"  just  come  to  anchor,  A 
boat  rows  to  the  shore,  from  which  alights  a 
gentleman  of  "  middle  stature,  and  an  agreea- 
ble, pleasant  and  erect  aspect,"  wearing  the 
canonicals  of  an  English  dean.  He  leads  by 
the  hand  a  lady  ;  three  other  gentlemen  follow 
in  their  company.  The  new  arrival  is  George 
Berkeley,  Dean  of  Derry,  philosopher  and 
scholar,  who,  on  his  way  to  Bermuda  with  the 
project  of  there  planting  an  ideally  perfect 
university,  "for  the  instruction  of  the  youth 
of  America"  (!),  has  chosen  Rhode  Island  as  a 
suitable  vantage-point  from  which  to  organize 
and  direct  the  new  undertaking.  His  com- 
panions are  his  newly  married  wife  and  three 
"  learned  and  elegant  friends,"  Sir  John  James, 
Richard  Dalton  and  the  artist  Smibert.  Not 
every  Saint's-Day  brings  such  voyagers  to 
Newport  from  over  the  sea.  No  wonder  that 
Trinity  Church  services  are  interrupted,  and 
that  preacher  and  congregation  crowd  to  the 
wharf  to  do  the  strangers  honor  ! 

The    Berkeley    party    spent    the    first    few 


Newport 


451 


months  of  their  stay  in  the  town  of  Newport, 
whence  the  Dean  made  short  excursions  to 
what  Mrs.  Berkeley  terms  "  the  Continent," 
meaning  the  main- 
land opposite.  To- 
ward the  close  of  their 
first  summer,  James, 
Dalton  and  Smibert 
removed  to  Boston, 
and  the  Berkeley 
family  to  a  farm  in 
the  interior  of  the  is- 
land, which  the  Dean 
had  purchased  and 
on  which  he  had  built 
a  house.  The  house 
still  exists,  and  is  still 
known  by  the  name 
of  Whitehall,  given 
it  by  its  loyal  owner 
in  remembrance  of 
the  ancient  palace  of 
the  king-s  of  England. 
The  estate,  which 
comprised  less  than  a 
hundred  acres,  lies  in  a  grassy  valley  to  the  south 
of  Honeyman's  Hill,  and  about  two  miles  back 


GEORGE    BERKELEY, 

DEAN    OF    DERRY. 


452  Newport 

from  what  is  now  known  as  the  "  Second 
Beach."  It  commands  no  "  view  "  whatever. 
Dean  Berkeley,  when  asked  why  he  did  not 
choose  a  site  from  which  more  could  be  seen, 
is  said  to  have  replied  that  "  if  a  prospect 
were  continually  in  view  it  would  lose  its 
charm."  His  favorite  walk  was  toward  the 
sea,  and  he  is  supposed  to  have  made  an  out- 
door study  of  a  rocky  shelf,  overhung  by  a 
cliff  cornice,  on  the  face  of  a  hill-ridge  front- 
ing the  beach,  which  shelf  is  still  known  as 
"  Bishop  Berkeley's  Rock." 

Three  years  the  peaceful  life  of  Whitehall 
continued.  Two  children  were  born  to  the 
Bishop,  one  of  whom  died  in  infancy.  The 
house  was  a  place  of  meeting  for  all  the  mis- 
sionaries of  the  island,  as  well  as  for  the  more 
thoughtful  and  cultivated  of  the  Newport  so- 
ciety. At  last,  in  the  winter  of  1 730,  came 
the  crisis  of  the  Bermuda  scheme.  Land  had 
been  purchased,  the  grant  of  money  half  pro- 
mised by  the  English  Government  was  due. 
But  the  persuasive  charm  of  the  founder  of 
the  enterprise  was  no  longer  at  hand  to  influ- 
ence those  who  had  the  power  to  make  or  mar 
the  project ;  and  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  with 
that  sturdy  indifference  to  pledge,  or  to  other 


454  Newport 

people's  convenience,  which  distinguished  him, 
intimated  with  fatal  clearness  of  meaning,  that 
if  Dean  Berkeley  was  waiting  in  Rhode  Island 
for  twenty  thousand  pounds  of  the  public 
money  to  be  got  out  of  his  exchequer,  he 
might  as  well  return  to  Europe  without  further 
loss  of  time.  The  bubble  was  indeed  broken, 
and  Berkeley,  brave  still  and  resolutely  patient 
under  this  heavy  blow,  prepared  for  departure. 
His  books  he  left  as  a  gift  to  the  library  of 
Yale  College,  and  his  farm  of  Whitehall  was 
made  over  to  the  same  institution,  to  found 
three  scholarships  for  the  encouragement  of 
Greek  and  Latin  study.  These  bequests  ar- 
ranofed,  his  wife  and  their  one  remainingf  child 
sailed  for  Ireland.  There,  a  bishopric,  and 
twenty  years  of  useful  and  honorable  labor, 
awaited  him,  and  the  brief  dream  of  Rhode 
Island  must  soon  have  seemed  a  dream  indeed. 
Few  vestiges  remain  now  of  his  sojourn, — the 
shabby  farmhouse  once  his  home,  the  chair  in 
which  he  sat  to  write,  a  few  books  and  papers, 
the  organ  presented  by  him  to  Trinity  Church, 
a  big  family  portrait  by  Smibert,  and,  appeal- 
ing more  strongly  to  the  imagination  than 
these,  the  memory  of  his  distinguished  name 
as  a  friend  of  American  letters,  still  preserved 


Newport  455 

by  scholarship  or  foundation  in  many  institu- 
tions of  learning — and  the  little  grave  in 
Trinity  churchyard,  where,  on  the  south  side 
of  the  Kay  Monument,  sleeps  "  Lucia  Berke- 
ley, daughter  of  Dean  Berkeley,  obiit  the  fifth 
of  September,  1731." 

The  traveller  who  to-day  is  desirous  of  visit- 
ing Whitehall  may  reach  it  by  the  delightful 
way  of  the  beaches.  Rounding  the  long  curve 
of  the  First  Beach,  with  its  dressing-houses 
and  tents,  its  crowd  of  carriaofes  and  swarms 
of  gayly  clad  bathers,  and  climbing  the  hill  at 
the  far  end,  he  will  find  himself  directly  above 
the  lonely  but  far  more  beautiful  Second 
Beach.  Immediately  before  him,  to  the  left, 
he  will  see  Bishop  Berkeley's  Rock,  with  its 
cliff-hung  shelf,  and  beyond,  the  soft  outlines 
of  Sachuest  Point,  the  narrow  blue  of  the  East 
Passage,  and  a  strip  of  sunlit  mainland.  The 
breezy  perch  where  Alciphi'on  was  written 
is  on  the  sea-face  of  one  of  the  parallel  rock- 
formations  which,  with  their  intervening  val- 
leys, make  up  the  region  known  as  "  Paradise 
Rocks."  Near  by,  in  the  line  of  low  cliffs 
which  bounds  the  beach  to  the  southward,  is 
the  chasm  called  "  Purgatory,"  a  vertical  fissure 
some  fifty  feet  in  depth,  into  which,  under  cer- 


45^  Newport 

tain  conditions  of  wind  and  tide,  the  water 
rushes  with  orreat  force  and  is  sucked  out  with 
a  hollow  boom,  which  is  sufficiently  frightful 
to  explain  the  name  selected  for  the  spot. 
The  rocks  which  make  up  the  cliffs  are  in 
great  part  conglomerate,  of  soft  shades  of  pur- 
ple and  reddish  gray.  Beyond,  the  white 
beach  glistens  in  the  sun.  And  to  the  left,  the 
road  curves  on  past  farmhouses  and  "cottages 
of  gentility."  Away  on  the  valley  slope,  the 
slow  sails  of  a  windmill  revolve  and  flash,  cast- 
ing a  flying  shadow  over  the  grass.  A  mile 
farther,  and  the  road,  making  a  turn,  is  joined 
to  the  right  by  what  seems  to  be  a  farm-lane 
shut  off  by  gates.  This  is  the  entrance  to 
Whitehall.  The  house  can  be  dimly  made 
out  from  the  road — a  low,  square  building  with 
a  lean-to  and  a  long,  steep  pitch  of  roof,  front- 
ing on  a  small  garden  overgrown  with  fruit- 
trees.  The  present  owner  holds  it  from  the 
college  under  what  may  truly  be  called  a  long 
lease,  as  it  has  still  some  eight  hundred  and 
odd  years  to  run.  He  has  built  a  house  near 
by,  for  his  own  occupation,  and,  alas  !  has  re- 
moved thither  the  last  bit  that  remained  of  the 
decorative  art  of  the  old  Whitehall,  namely, 
the  band  of  quaint  Dutch  tiles  which  once  sur- 


"  PURGATORY." 


45^  Newport 

rounded  the  chimney-piece  of  the  parlor.  But 
the  parlor  remains  unchanged,  with  its  low  ceil- 
ing and  uneven  floor ;  the  old  staircase  is  there, 
the  old  trees,  and,  in  spite  of  the  tooth  of  time 
and  the  worse  spoliation  of  man,  enough  is  left 
to  hint  at  the  days  of  its  early  repute  and  to 
make  the  place  worth  a  visit. 

One  more  glimpse  through  the  mist  before 
we  come  to  the  new  times  of  this  our  Isle  of 
Peace.  It  is  just  half  a  century  since  Berke- 
ley, his  baffled  scheme  heavy  at  his  heart,  set 
sail  for  Ireland.  The  fog  is  unusually  thick, 
and  lies  like  a  fleece  of  wool  over  the  sea. 
Absolutely  nothing  can  be  seen,  but  strange 
sounds  come,  borne  on  the  wind  from  the  di- 
rection of  Block  Island — dull  reports  as  of 
cannon  signals ;  and  the  inhabitants  of  New- 
port prick  up  their  ears  and  strain  their  eyes 
with  a  mixture  of  hope  and  terror ;  for  the 
French  fleet  is  looked  for ;  English  cruisers 
have  been  seen  or  suspected  hovering  round 
the  coast,  and  who  knows  but  a  naval  engage- 
ment is  taking  place  at  that  very  moment. 
By  and  by  the  fog  lifts,  with  that  fantastic  de- 
liberation which  distinguishes  its  movements, 
and  presently  stately  shapes  whiten  the  blue, 
and,   gradually  nearing,   reveal    themselves   as 


Newport 


459 


the  frigates  Surveillante,  Amazone  and  Guipe, 
The  Duke  of  Burguiidy,  and  The  Neptu7ie, 
"doubly  sheathed  with  copper";  The  Con- 
quer ant,  The  Provence,  The  EveilU,  also 
"doubly  sheathed  with  copper";  The  Lazo7i 
and  The  Ardent,  convoying  a  host  of  trans- 
ports and  store-ships  ;  with  General  Rocham- 


ROCHAMBEAU'S  HEADQUARTERS. 

beau  and  his  officers  on  board,  besides  the 
regiments  of  Bourbonnais,  Soissonais,  Sain- 
tonge  and  Royal  Deux  Fonts,  five  hundred 
artillerists  and  six  hundred  of  Lauzan's  Le- 
gion, all  come  to  aid  the  infant  United  States, 
then  in  the  fourth  year  of  their  struggle  for 
independence.  Never  was  reinforcement 
more  timely  or  more  ardently  desired.       We 


460  Newport 

may  be  sure  that  all  Newport  ran  out  to  greet 
the  new  arrivals.  Among  the  other  officers 
who  landed  on  that  eventful  nth  of  July, 
was  Claude  Blanchard,  commissary-in-chief  of 
the  French  forces — an  important  man  enough 
to  the  expedition,  but  of  very  little  importance 
now,  except  for  the  lucky  fact  that  he  kept  a 
journal, — which  journal,  recently  published, 
gives  a  better  and  more  detailed  account  of 
affairs  at  that  time  and  place  than  any  one 
else  has  afforded  us. 

It  is  from  Blanchard  that  we  learn  of  the 
three  months'  voyage ;  of  sighting  now  and 
again  the  vessels  of  the  English  squadron  ;  of 
the  Chevalier  de  Fernay's  refusal  to  engage 
them,  he  being  intent  on  the  safe-conduct  of 
his  convoy ;  of  the  consequent  heart-burnings 
and  reproaches  of  his  captains,  which,  together 
with  the  stings  of  his  own  wounded  pride,  re- 
sulted in  a  fever,  and  subsequently  in  his  death, 
recorded  on  the  tablet  which  now  adorns  the 
vestibule  of  Trinity  Church.  The  town  was 
illuminated  in  honor  of  the  fleet.  "  A  small 
but  handsome  town,"  says  Blanchard,  "and 
the  houses,  though  mostly  of  wood,  are  of  an 
agreeable  shape." 

The  first  work  of   the  newly  arrived  allies 


Newport  461 

was  to  restore  the  redoubts  which  the  Enghsh 
had  dismantled  and  in  great  part  destroyed. 
It  was  at  this  time  that  the  first  fort  on  the 
DumpHngs,  and  the  original  Fort  Adams,  on 
Brenton's  Reef,  were  built.  The  excellent 
Blanchard  meanwhile  continues  his  observa- 
tions on  climate,  society  and  local  customs. 

One  of  his  criticisms  on  the  national  charac- 
teristics strikes  us  oddly  now,  yet  has  its  inter- 
est as  denoting  the  natural  drift  and  result  of 
the  employment  of  a  debased  currency. 

"  The  Americans  are  slow,  and  do  not  de- 
cide promptly  in  matters  of  business,"  he  ob- 
serves. "  It  is  not  easy  for  us  to  rely  upon  their 
promises.  They  love  money,  and  hard  money  ; 
it  is  thus  they  designate  specie  to  distinguish 
it  from  paper  money,  which  loses  prodigiously. 
This  loss  varies  according  to  circumstances  and 
according  to  the  provinces." 

Later  we  hear  of  dinners  and  diners  : 

"  They  do  not  eat  soups,  and  do  not  serve  up  ragouts 
at  their  dinners,  but  boiled  and  roast,  and  much  vegeta- 
bles. They  drink  nothing  but  cider  and  Madeira  wine 
with  water.  The  dessert  is  composed  of  preserved  quinces 
and  pickled  sorrel.  The  Americans  eat  the  latter  with 
the  meat.  They  do  not  take  coffee  immediately  after 
dinner,  but  it  is  served  three  or  four  hours  afterward 
with  tea  ;  this  coffee  is  weak,  and  four  or  five  cups  are 


462  Newport 

not  equal  to  one  of  ours  ;  so  that  they  take  many  of 
them.  The  tea,  on  the  contrary,  is  very  strong.  Break- 
fast is  an  important  affair  with  them.  Besides  tea  and 
coffee,  they  put  on  table  roasted  meats,  with  butter, 
pies  and  ham  ;  nevertheless  they  sup,  and  in  the  af- 
ternoon they  again  take  tea.  Thus  the  Americans  are 
almost  always  at  table  ;  and  as  they  have  little  to  occupy 
them,  as  they  go  out  little  in  winter,  and  spend  whole 
days  alongside  their  fireside  and  their  wives,  without  read- 
ing and  without  doing  anything,  going  to  table  is  a  relief 
and  a  preventive  of  ennui.  Yet  they  are  not  great 
eaters." 

On  the  5th  of  March,  1781,  General  Wash- 
ington arrived  in  Newport.  Blanchard  thus 
records  his  first  impressions  of  the  commander- 
in-chief  :  "His  face  is  handsome,  noble  and 
mild.  He  is  tall — at  the  least,  five  feet  eight 
inches  (French  measure).  In  the  evening  I 
was  at  supper  with  him.  I  mark,  as  a  fortun- 
ate day,  that  in  which  I  have  been  able  to 
behold  a  man  so  truly  great." 

After  the  war  came  a  period  of  great  busi- 
ness depression,  in  which  Newport  heavily 
shared.  The  British,  during  their  occupa- 
tion of  the  town,  had  done  much  to  injure 
it.  Nearly  a  thousand  buildings  were  de- 
stroyed by  them  on  the  island  ;  fruit-  and  shade- 
trees  were  cut  down,  the  churches  were  used 


LIFE   MASK   OF  WASHINGTON. 

MADE  BY   HOUDON  IN  1785. 


463 


4^4  Newport 

as  barracks,  and  the  Redwood  Library  was  de- 
spoiled of  its  more  valuable  books.  Commerce 
was  dead  ;  the  suppression  of  the  slave-trade 
reduced  many  to  poverty,  and  the  curse  of 
paper  money — to  which  Rhode  Island  clung 
after  other  States  had  abandoned  i^ — poisoned 
the  very  springs  of  public  credit.  Brissot  de 
Warville,  in  the  record  of  his  journey  "per- 
formed" through  the  United  States  in  1788, 
draws  this  melancholy  picture  of  Newport  at 
that  time  : 

"  Since  the  peace,  everything  is  changed.  The  reign 
of  solitude  is  only  interrupted  by  groups  of  idle  men 
standing,  with  folded  arms,  at  the  corners  of  the  streets  ; 
houses  falling  to  ruin  ;  miserable  shops,  which  present 
nothing  but  a  few  coarse  stuffs,  or  baskets  of  apples,  and 
other  articles  of  little  value  ;  grass  growing  in  the  public 
square,  in  front  of  the  court  of  justice  ;  rags  stuffed  in 
the  windows,  or  hung  upon  hideous  women  and  lean, 
uncpiiet  children." 

Count  Rochefoucauld-Liancourt,  writing  ten 
years  later,  calls  the  place  "  ccl^e  ville  tristc  ct 
basse,''  and  further  ventures  on  this  remarkable 
criticism  of  its  salubrity  : 

"  The  healthfulness  of  the  city  of  Newport  and  its  en- 
virons is  doubtless  the  result  of  the  brilliancy  and  cool- 
ness of  its  climate,  but  this  coolness  proves  fatal  to  its 


Newport  465 

younger  inhabitants,  and  the  number  of  young  men,  and, 
above  all,  of  young  women,  who  die  yearly  of  consump- 
tion is  considerable.  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  inscrip- 
tions on  the  tombstones  in  the  cemetery  indicate  in 
almost  all  cases  that  the  person  interred  is  either  very 
young  or  very  old — either  less  than  twenty  years  of  age 
or  more  than  seventy." 

Whether  this  statement  of  Count  Rochefou- 
cauld's bears  the  test  of  examination  would  be 
impossible  now  to  determine,  for  the  century 
since  his  visit  has  made  changes  in  the  city  of 
the  dead  as  marked  as  those  effected  in  the 
city  of  the  living.  But  the  "  cool  and  bril- 
liant "  air  with  which  he  finds  fault  has  since 
been  proved  by  many  invalids  to  be  full  of 
health-giving  properties.  Consumptives  are 
more  often  sent  to  Newport  for  cure,  nowa- 
days, than  away  from  it.  Asthma,  diseases  of 
the  chest  and  throat,  nervous  disorders,  insom- 
nia, excitability  of  brain,  are  in  many  cases 
sensibly  benefited  by  the  island  climate,  which, 
however,  is  less  "  brilliant "  than  sedative. 
This  is  attributed  to  the  relaxing  effects  of 
the  Gulf  Stream,  which  is  popularly  supposed 
to  make  an  opportune  curve  toward  the  shore 
and  to  produce  a  quality  of  air  quite  different 
from  that  of  other  New  England  seaside  cli- 


466 


Newport 


mates.  Whatever  may  be  the  truth  as  to  the 
bend  of  this  obHging  current,  it  is  certain  that 
something  has  given  to  the  place  an  excep- 
tional climate,  pure,  free  from  malaria  and 
exempt  equally  from  the  fiercer  heats  of  sum- 
mer and  the  severer  colds  of  winter. 

It  was  not  till  about  the  year  1830  that  the 

true  source  of 
Newport's  pros- 
perity was  real- 
ized to  be  her 
climate.  Since 
then  she  has  be- 
come more  and 
more  the  Mecca 
of  pilgrims  from 
all  parts  of  the 
country.  Year 
by  y  ear,  the 
town  has  spread 
and  broadened, 
stretching  out  wide  arms  to  include  distant 
coigns  of  vantage,  until  now  the  summer  city 
covers  some  miles  in  extent,  and  land,  unsalable 
in  the  early  part  of  the  century,  and  but  twenty 
years  ago  commanding  little  more  than  the  price 
of  a  Western  homestead,  is  now  valued  at  from 


THE    PARSONAGE    OF    MRS.    STOWE'S 
"  MINISTER'S  WOOING." 


Newport  467 

ten  to  fourteen  thousand  dollars  an  acre ! 
Every  year  adds  to  the  number  of  cottages 
and  villas  and  to  the  provision  made  for  the 
accommodation  of  strangers.  The  census, 
which  in  winter  counts  up  to  less  than  twenty 
thousand,  is  during  the  four  months  of  "  the 
season  "  swelled  by  the  addition  of  thousands 
of  strangers,  many  of  whom  are  in  a  manner 
residents  of  the  place,  owning  their  own  houses 
and  preserving  their  domestic  privacy. 

A  walk  in  the  older  and  more  thickly  settled 
parts  of  the  town  is  not  without  its  rewards. 
There  are  to  be  found  well-known  objects  of 
interest, — the  Jewish  burial-ground,  with  its 
luxurious  screen  of  carefully  tended  flowers  ; 
the  Redwood  Library,  rich  in  old  books  and 
the  possession  of  the  finest  cut-leaved  beech 
on  the  island  ;  and  the  old  Stone  Mill,  on 
which  so  much  speculative  reasoning  in  prose 
and  verse  has  been  lavished.  Some  years 
ago,  those  ruthless  civic  hands  which  know 
neither  taste  nor  mercy,  despoiled  the  mill  of 
the  vines  which  made  it  picturesque,  but  even 
thus  denuded,  it  is  an  interesting  object.  There 
is  old  Trinity,  with  its  square  pews  and  burial 
tablets,  and  a  last-century  "  three-decker"  pul- 
pit, with  clerk's  desk,  reading-desk  and  preach- 


468 


Newport 


ing-desk,  all   overhung  by  a  conical  sounding- 
board    of    extinguisher    pattern — a  sounding- 


DOORWAY    OF   OLD    HOUSE    ON    THAMES   STREET. 

board  on  which  whole  generations  of  little  boys 
have  fixed  fascinated  eyes,  wondering   in  case 


Newport  469 

of  fall  what  would  become  of  the  clergyman 
underneath  it.  And,  besides  these,  each  west- 
ward-leading street  gives  pretty  glimpses  of 
bay  and  islands  and  shipping,  and  there  is  al- 
ways the  chance  of  lighting  on  a  bit  of  the 
past, — some  quaint  roof  or  wall  or  doorway, 
left  over  from  Revolutionary  times  and  hold- 
ing up  a  protesting  face  from  among  more 
modern  buildings. 

Winter  or  summer,  the  charm  which  most 
endears  Newport  to  the  imaginative  mind  is, 
and  must  continue  to  be,  the  odd  mingling  of 
old  and  new  which  meets  you  on  every  hand. 
A  large  portion  of  the  place  belongs  and  can 
belong  to  no  other  day  but  our  own,  but 
touching  it  everywhere,  apart  from  it  but  of  it, 
is  the  past.  It  meets  you  at  every  turn,  in 
legend  or  relic  or  quaint  traditionary  custom 
still  kept  up  and  observed.  Many  farm-hands 
and  servants  on  the  island  still  date  and  renew 
their  contracts  of  service  from  "  Lady-Day." 
The  "nine-o'clock  bell,"  which  seems  derived 
in  some  dim  way  from  the  ancient  curfew,  is 
regularly  rung.  The  election  parade,  dear  to 
little  boys  and  peanut-venders,  has  continued 
to  be  a  chief  event  every  spring,  with  its  pro- 
cession, its  drums,  its  crowd  of  country  visitors, 


470  Newport 

and  small  booths  for  the  sale  of  edibles  and 
non-edibles  pitched  on  either  side  the  State- 
House  Square,  which,  in  honor  of  this  yearly 
observance,  is  called  familiarly,  "The  Parade." 
One  of  the  oldest  militia  companies  in  New 
England  is  the  Newport  Artillery,  and  The 
Mercnry,  established  in  1758  by  a  brother  of 
Benjamin  Franklin,  is  the  oldest  surviving  news- 
paper in  the  United  States.  Newport  also 
possesses  a  town-crier.  He  may  be  met  with 
any  day,  tinkling  his  bell  at  street  corners  and 
rehearsing,  in  a  loud,  melancholy  chant,  facts 
regarding  auction-sales,  or  town-meetings,  or 
lost  property.  And,  turning  aside  from  the 
polo-play  or  the  Avenue  crowded  with  brilliant 
equipages,  a  few  rods  carries  you  to  the  quiet 
loneliness  of  a  secluded  burial-place,  with  the 
name  of  an  ancient  family  carved  on  its  locked 
gate,  in  which,  beneath  gray  headstones  and 
long,  flowering  grasses,  repose  the  hushed 
secrets  of  a  century  ago.  Or,  fresh  from  the 
buzz  and  chatter,  the  gay  interchange  of  the 
day,  you  may  chance  on  an  old  salt  spinning 
yarns  of  pirates  and  privateers,  phantom  ships 
or  buried  treasure,  or  an  antiquary  full  of  well- 
remembered  stories  whose  actors  belong  to  the 
far-gone  past, — stories  of  the  extinct  glories  of 


Newport 


471 


the  place,  of  family  romance  and  family  trag- 
edy, or  tragedy  just  escaped.  What  could  be 
finer  contrast  than  tales  like  these,  told  on  a 
street-corner  where,  just  before,  perhaps,  the 
question  had 
been  about 
Wall  Street  or 
Santiago,  if  the 
French  frigate 
were  still  in  the 
bay,  or  when 
would  be  the 
next  meeting  of 
the  Town  and 
Country  Club  ! 
Indeed,  it  is  not 
so  many  years 
since  visitors 
to  Newport 
miofht  have 
held  speech 
with  a  dear  old 

lady  whose  memory  carried  her  back  clearly  and 
distinctly  to  the  day  when,  a  child  six  years  old, 
she  sat  on  Washington's  knee.  The  little  girl 
had  a  sweet  voice.  She  sang  a  song  to  the  great 
man,  in  recompense  for  which  he  honored  her 


GENERAL  NATHANAEL  GREENE. 
FROM    ONE    OF    MALBONE'S    BEST    MINIATURES. 


472  Newport 

with  a  salute.  "It  was  here,  my  dear,  and 
here,  that  General  Washington  kissed  me," 
she  would  say  to  her  grandchildren,  touching 
first  one  and  then  the  other  wrinkled  cheek  ; 
and  to  the  end  of  her  life,  no  other  lips  were 
suffered  to  profane  with  a  touch  the  spots  thus 
made  sacred. 

In  a  country  whose  charm  and  whose  re- 
proach alike  is  its  newness,  and  to  a  society 
whose  roots  are  forever  being  uprooted  and 
freshly  planted  to  be  again  uprooted,  there  is 
real  education  and  advantage  in  the  tangible 
neighborhood  of  the  past  ;  and  the  Newport 
past  is  neither  an  unlovely  nor  a  reproachful 
shape.  There  is  dignity  in  her  calm  mien ; 
she  looks  on  stately  and  untroubled,  and  com- 
pares and  measures.  The  dazzle  and  glitter 
of  modern  luxury  do  not  daunt  her  :  she  has 
seen  splendor  before  in  a  different  generation 
and  different  forms,  she  has  shared  it,  she  has 
watched  it  fade  and  fail.  Out  of  her  mute, 
critical  regard,  a  voice  seems  to  sound  in  tones 
like  the  rustle  of  falling  leaves  in  an  autumn 
day,  and  to  utter  that  ancient  and  melancholy 
truth,  Vanitas  vanitatum !  "The  fashion  of 
this  world  passeth  away."  We  listen,  awed  for 
a  moment,  and  then  we  smile  again, — for  bright- 


Newport 


473 


ness  near  at  hand  has  a  more  potent  spell  than 
melancholy  gone  by,  —  and  turning  to  our 
modern  lives  with  their  movement  and  sun- 
shine, their  hope  and  growth,  we  are  content  to 
accept  and  enjoy  such  brief  day  as  is  granted 
us,  nor  "prate  nor  hint  of  change  till  change 
shall  come." 


PROVIDENCE 

THE  COLONY  OF  HOPE 

By  WILLIAM  B.  WEEDEN 

THE  capital  of  Rhode  Island,  the  second 
city  of  New  England, — an  agricultural 
village  in  the  seventeenth,  a  commercial  port 
in  the  eighteenth,  and  a  centre  of  manufactur- 
ing  in  the  nineteenth  century, — lies  at  the  head 
of  Narragansett  Bay.  The  mainland  of  the 
State  westward  to  Connecticut,  according  to 
Shaler,  rests  on  very  old  rocks  of  the  Lauren- 
tian  and  Lower  Cambrian  series.  The  greater 
part  of  the  bay  and  the  land  near  Providence 
is  upon  rocks  belonging  to  the  Coal  measures. 
These  rocks,  softer  than  the  older  ones,  have 
been  cut  away  and  afford  the  inlets  of  the  bay. 
The  surface  of  the  State  and  the  sloping  hills 
of  Providence  have  been  profoundly  affected 
by  the  wearing  course  of  the  glaciers. 

The  original  village  skirted  along  the  west- 

475 


47^  Providence 

ern  side  of  the  ridge,  by  which  ran  the  Httle 
Moshassuck  and  Woons-asquetucket  Rivers. 
Eastward  the  ridge  stretched  in  a  plateau  to 
the  larger  Seekonk,  which  cut  off  the  penin- 
sula. On  the  eastern  side  of  the  Seekonk, 
Roger  Williams  had  settled  and  planted,  when 
Plymouth  Colony  significantly  advised  him 
to  move  on.  In  June,  1636,  with  five  com- 
panions, he  crossed  the  Seekonk  and  landed  on 
the  rock,  since  raised  to  the  grade  of  Ives  and 
Williams  streets.  Here,  as  the  tradition  runs, 
Indians  greeted  him  cordially,  "  What  Cheer, 
Netop  !  What  Cheer  !  "  He  had  arranged 
with  the  Narragansett  sachems,  Canonicus 
and  Miantinomi,  for  deeds  of  the  lands  about 
these  rivers  and  the  Pawtuxet,  with  certain  un- 
defined rights  extending  westward  and  north- 
ward. 

The  canoe  kept  away  from  What  Cheer  or 
Slate  rock,  south  and  westward  around  Tock- 
wotton  and  Fox  Point,  up  the  Providence 
River,  to  land  near  where  St.  John's  Church 
stands.  The  spring  of  water  attracting  the 
pioneer  and  kept  as  public  property  is  in  the 
basement  of  a  house  on  the  northwest  corner  of 
North  Main  Street  and  Allen's  Lane.  North 
Main  was  the  "  Towne  Streete,"  occupied  by 


o  S 

cc 


4/8  Providence 

the  little  band  of  settlers.  Williams's  "  home- 
lot  "  stretched  easterly,  including  the  land  of 
the  Dorr  Estate,  at  the  corner  of  Benefit  and 
Bowen  Streets.  A  stone  In  the  rear  of  the 
buildings  marks  the  spot  where  Roger  Wil- 
liams was  burled. 

In  this  man  was  the  germ  of  Providence, 
the  adumbration  of  the  little  commonwealth 
of  Rhode  Island.  Whatever  drove  him  from 
Massachusetts,  however  the  Puritans  enforced 
their  narrow  political  scheme,  the  result  was  a 
free  State  founded  on  new  principles  of  gov- 
ernment.     In  the  words  of   Thomas  Durfee  : 

"  Absolute  sincerity  is  the  key  to  his  character,  as  it  was 
always  the  mainspring  of  his  conduct.  .  .  .  He  had 
the  defect  of  his  qualities  ; — an  inordinate  confidence 
in  his  own  judgment.  He  had  also  the  defects  of  his 
race  ; — the  hot  Welsh  temper,  passionate  and  resentful 
under  provocation,  and  the  moody  Welsh  fancy." 

The  "  Plantations  of  Providence  "  began  In 
these  "  home-lots,"  reaching  eastward  from  the 
"  Towne  Streete."  It  was  intended  to  give 
each  settler  five  acres.  Some  had,  moreover, 
meadow-lands,  and  there  were  common  rights, 
as  In  all  the  plantations  of  New  England. 
Chad  Brown,  John  Throckmorton,  and  Greg- 
ory  Dexter   were    the  committee   who    made 


480  Providence 

the  first  allotment.  The  land  had  been  con- 
veyed from  the  Indian  sachems,  and  Williams 
gave  it  by  "  initial  deed  "  to  his  twelve  com- 
panions, making  thirteen  original  proprietors. 

"  Probably  in  the  autumn  of  1638,  and  cer- 
tainly prior  to  the  i6th  of  March,  1639,"'  ^he 
settlers  formed  the  first  Baptist  church  in 
America.  Williams  was  pastor  for  about  four 
months,  with  Holyman  as  colleague.  Chad 
Brown  was  ordained  in  1642  with  William 
Wickenden.  The  latter  was  succeeded  by 
Gregory  Dexter.  The  present  church,  adapted 
by  James  Sumner  from  designs  of  James  Gibbs, 
architect,  was  built  in  1775.  Earlier  than  this, 
though  the  date  is  not  fixed,  the  proprietors 
had  made  the  following  agreement,  the  import- 
ance of  which  can  hardly  be  overestimated  : 

"  We  whose  names  are  hereunder,  desirous  to  inhabit 
in  the  town  of  Providence,  do  promise  to  subject  our- 
selves in  active  or  passive  obedience,  to  all  such  orders 
or  agreements  as  shall  be  made  for  public  good  of  the 
body,  in  an  orderly  way,  by  the  major  assent  of  the  present 
inhabitants,  masters  of  families,  incorporated  together 
into  a  town-fellowship,  and  such  others  whom  they  shall 
admit  unto  them  only  in  civil  things." 

Here  was  laid  the  foundation  of  soul  liberty. 
Let  us    refer  to  Diman  :  ''  Thus,  for  the  first 

'  Arnold,  Rhode  Island,  i.,  107. 


Providence  481 

time  in  history,  a  form  of  government  was 
adopted  which  drew  a  clear  and  unmistakable 
line  between  the  temporal  and  spiritual  power, 
and  a  community  came  into  being  which  was 
an  anomaly  among  the  nations."  It  was  a  pure 
democracy,  controlling  the  admission  of  its 
members. 

They  soon  found  that  some  delegation  of 
power  was  needed  for  civil  administration,  and 
in  1640  they  elaborated  their  system  somewhat, 
and  established  rudimentary  courts.  They  per- 
ceived that  they  could  not  remain  safely  be- 
tween the  unfriendly  colonies  of  Massachusetts 
on  one  side,  and  the  alien  Dutch  of  New  York 
on  the  other.  They  sent  Williams  to  Eng- 
land, whence  he  returned  in  1644,  bringing  a 
parliamentary  charter.  Under  this,  the  towns 
of  Providence,  Portsmouth  and  Newport  were 
united,  with  the  name  "The  Incorporation  of 
Providence  Plantations  in  the  Narragansett 
Bay  in  New  England."  In  1645  there  were, 
according  to  Holmes,  loi  men  in  Providence 
capable  of  bearing  arms.  Staples  thinks  this 
estimate  includes  the  population  of  Shawonct 
or  Warwick.  In  1663  John  Clarke  of  New- 
port obtained  the  royal  charter,  which  was 
adopted  by  the  freemen  of  the  towns,  and  the 


482  Providence 

commonwealth  was  entitled  the  "  Colony  of 
Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Plantations." 
The  oldest  tax  or  rate  bill  extant  dates  from 
1650,  when  Roger  Williams  was  assessed 
^1,13.4.  In  1663  the  whole  tax  was  ^36.  as- 
sessed in  "  Country  pay,"  which  performed  such 
important  functions  in  the  currencies  of  New 
Eng-land,  viz.,  wheat  at  4^-.  6^^.,  peas,  t,s.  6i/., 
butter,  6d. 

An  important  factor  in  the  daily  life  of  Pro- 
vidence has  always  been  in  the  crossing  of  the 
main  stream  which  limited  the  early  village  on 
the  west.  Mr.  Fred.  A.  Arnold's  careful  in- 
vestigation ^  shows  that  a  bridge  at  Weybosset, 
"  formerly  Wapwayset,"  or  "  at  the  narrow 
passage,"  was  built  before  1660.  It  was  re- 
paired and  renewed  at  various  times.  In  i66-|- 
Roger  Williams  undertook,  in  a  most  interest- 
ing document,  to  maintain  it  by  co-operative 
labor  from  the  townsmen  and  tolls  from  stran- 
gers. It  was  enlarged  until,  in  the  middle  of 
our  century,  tradition  claimed  it  to  be  the  wid- 
est bridge  in  the  world.  Other  bridges  spanned 
the  river,  and  in  the  present  year  the  old  Wey- 
bosset is  being  replaced  by  an  elaborate  steel 
structure  laid  on  piers  of  granite. 

'  Froc.  R.  I.  H.  S.,  July,  1895 


483 


THE  ROGER  WILLIAMS  MONUMENT. 


484  Providence 

In  1 675-1 676  King  Philip's  War,  in  which 
the  Narragansetts  joined,  raged  through  south- 
ern New  England,  and  our  little  plantation  was 
devastated.  The  women  and  children  o-ener- 
ally,  with  the  greater  part  of  the  men,  sought 
safety  in  Newport,  Long  Island  or  elsewhere. 
Thirty  houses  were  burned,  chiefly  in  the  north 
part  of  the  town.  After  the  Indians  were 
beaten,  the  village  was  slowly  rebuilt.  At  this 
time  the  administration  of  the  settlement  was 
in  the  hands  of  the  Friends.  Their  influence 
was  second  only  to  that  of  the  Baptists,  until 
after  the  Revolution.  The  only  original  house 
standing  is  the  interesting  Roger  Mowry^ 
tavern,  built  in  1653  or  earlier,  called  also  the 
Whipple  or  Abbott  house.  Guarded  by  a 
large  elm,  it  stands  on  Abbott  Street,  which 
runs  eastward  from  North  Main.  The  town 
council  met  there,  and  tradition  says  Williams 
conducted  prayer-meetings  in  it. 

Some  of  the  sites  of  the  early  planters  are 
interesting.  Richard  Scott,  a  Quaker  and  an- 
tagonist of  Williams,  lived  on  the  lot  next  north 
of  St.  John's  churchyard.  Mary  Dyre  went 
from  here  to  be  hanged  on  Boston  Common. 
Near  Dexter's  (afterward  Olney's)  lane  lived 

'  Isham  &  Brown,  Houses,  p.  21. 


Providence  485 

Gregory  Dexter.  Chad  Brown,  the  ancestor 
of  so  many  men  of  mark,  Hved  on  land  now 
occupied  by  College  Street.  The  purpose  of 
the  original  allotment  was  to  give  fronts  upon 
the  "  Towne  Streete "  and  river,  and  equal 
shares    of    farm-lands.      According   to    Dorr^  : 

"  This  attempt  at  democratic  equality  only  created  a 
multitude  of  small  estates  widely  separated,  and  in  some 
instances  nearly  or  quite  a  mile  apart.  Besides  his  home- 
lot  of  five  acres,  each  proprietor  had  a  '  six-acre  lot,'  at  a 
distance  from  his  abode;  and  in  a  few  years  one  or  more 
'stated  common  lots,'  which  he  acquired  by  purchase 
from  the  Proprietary,  or  by  their  occasional  land  divid- 
ends among  themselves." 

The  chief  holdings  were  on  "  Providence 
Neck,"  but  they  gradually  extended  into 
"  Weybosset    Neck." 

The  latter  years  of  Roger  Williams  were 
largely  occupied  by  controversies  with  his 
neighbors,  including  his  especial  opponent, 
William  Harris.  The  germs  of  a  new  State, 
rendered  indestructible  by  the  complete  sep- 
aration of  church  and  state,  if  slumbering,  yet 
lived  in  spite  of  the  petty  social  stagnation  of 
an  agricultural  community. 

Early  in  the  eighteenth  century,  the  planta- 

'  Pla7iting  of  Providence,  p.  43. 


486  Providence 

tion  took  a  new  departure.  Nathaniel  Browne, 
a  shipwright,  had  been  driven  out  from  Massa- 
chusetts, because  he  had  become  "  a  convert 
to  the  Church  of  England."  In  1711  the 
town  granted  him  one  half-acre  on  "  Waybos- 
set  Neck  on  salt  water,"  and  again  another 
half-acre  for  building  vessels.  His  vessels 
were  among  the  first  to  sail  from  Providence 
for  the  West  Indies.  Horse-carts  and  vehicles 
had  been  used  before  1 700  by  the  wealthy, 
but  Madame  Knight's  journey  to  New  York 
from  Boston  in  1704  shows  that  the  saddle 
and  pillion  were  the  common  conveyance  along 
the  bridle  -  paths.  Galloping  on  the  Town 
Street  was  prohibited  in  1681.  Through  Paw- 
tucket,  the  Bostonians  came  by  the  present 
North  Burying  Ground  into  the  Town  Street, 
then  crossed  Weybosset  Bridge  on  their  way 
toward  the  southwest.  In  the  wider  part  of 
Weybosset  thoroughfare,  there  stood  a  knoll, 
which  has  been  levelled  away.  The  road  swept 
around  and  created  the  bulging  lines  of  the 
street.  Travel  went  on  through  Apponaug 
and  North  Kingstown,  over  Tower  Hill  and 
by  the  Narragansett  shore,  over  the  Pequot 
path  toward  New  York.  At  this  period,  the 
road   was  opened   toward    Hartford,    and    im- 


Providence  487 

proved  communications  were  made  with  the 
surrounding  towns.  It  was  not  until  1820 
that  a  direct  turnpike  was  opened  from  Pro- 
vidence to  New  London. 

Of  more  importance  even  was  the  way  into 
the  world  outward,  through  the  bay.  Pardon 
Tillinghast  had  been  granted  land  twenty 
feet  square  for  a  storehouse  and  wharf  "  over 
against  his  dwelling-place,"  in  1679-80,  at  the 
foot  of  the  present  Transit  Street.  There  was 
struggle  and  competition  for  "  lands  by  the 
sea-side,"  or  "  forty-foot  lots,  called  warehouse 
lots,"  throughout  this  time,  and  complete  divi- 
sion of  the  shore  privileges  was  not  effected 
until  1 749.  All  these  restless  movements 
showed  that  the  town  was  waking  up  and 
sending  its  commerce  abroad  into  foreign 
countries.  The  first  effectual  street  regula- 
tions were  in  1736. 

The  next  church  organized  after  the  First 
Baptist  followed  the  faith  of  the  Six-Principle 
Baptists.  The  Friends,  as  they  were  expelled 
from  Massachusetts,  settled  in  various  towns 
of  Rhode  Island.  Mention  has  been  made 
of  Richard  Scott.  In  1672  George  Fox 
visited  Newport,  and  he  held  a  meeting  "  in  a 
great  barn"  at  Providence.      Here  was  a  con- 


488  Providence 

testant  worthy  of  our  doughty  champion, 
Wilhams.  They  disputed  with  voice  and  pen, 
recording  their  angeHc  moods  in  these  argu- 
mentative titles  :  The  Fox  Digged  out  of  his 
Burrowes  begged  one  side  of  the  question  ; 
this  was  answered  with  equal  logic  in  A  New 
England  Firebrand  Quenched.  The  Friends 
built  a  meeting-house  about  1 704. 

The  First  Congregational  Pedobaptist  (now 
Unitarian)  Society  was  formed  about  1720. 
They  built  a  house  for  worship  in  1723,  at  the 
corner  of  College  and  Benefit  Streets,  where 
the  Court  House  now  stands.  This  building 
became  the  "  Old  Town  House,"  when  the 
society  moved  to  its  present  location  at  the 
corner  of  Benevolent  and  Benefit  Streets. 
Meanwhile  the  adherents  of  the  Church  of 
England,  yet  to  become  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  of  the  United  States,  were 
gathering  in  our  town.  There  is  some  dispute 
as  to  the  first  movements,  but  Dr.  McSparran 
of  Narragansett  affirmed  that  he  "  was  the  first 
Episcopal  minister  that  ever  preached  at  Pro- 
vidence." The  society  thus  formed  finally 
took  the  name  of  "  St.  John's  Church,  in  Pro- 
vidence." The  church  was  raised  in  1722,  on 
the  spot  where  the  present  building  succeeded 


Providence  489 

it  in  18 10.  It  will  be  observed  that  these  new 
ecclesiastical  developments  moved  along  with 
the  broader  commercial  life  which  was  animat- 
ting  the  community. 

Any  historical  student  should  examine 
Rhode  Island  for  what  it  is,  and  even  more 
for  what  it  is  not.  Roger  Williams  and  his 
fellows  tried  a  "  lively  experiment "  as  daring 
as  it  was  fruitful.  They  severed  church  and 
state,  cutting  off  thereby  the  help  of  an  edu- 
cated clergy.  They  founded  a  political  de- 
mocracy, tempering  it  with  the  best  aristocracy 
to  be  obtained,  without  the  ordinary  facilities  of 
education  derived  through  such  help.  Neither 
the  Williams  Independents  nor  the  Quakers 
followed  the  common  formulas  of  education, 
which  were  generally  in  the  hands  of  Angli- 
cans or  Presbyterians.  This  does  not  prove 
that  societies  can  safely  drop  scholastic  educa- 
tion. Many  communities  have  failed  for  lack 
of  such  education.  It  does  prove  that  the 
Anglo-American  stock  engaged  in  political 
and  economical  development  will  educate 
itself.  At  first  sight,  it  was  hardly  to  be 
expected  that  isolated  and  unlettered  Pro- 
vidence would  be  prominent  in  resisting  Eng- 
land,  or  in  forming  a  new  government.      But 


490 


Providence 


she  did  this,  in  full  share,  and  the  embodi- 
ment of  her  citizenship,  the  type  of  her  repub- 
lican character,  was  in  one  man,  Stephen 
Hopkins — "great  not  only  in  capacity  and 
force  of  mind,  but  also — what  is  much  rarer — 
in  originative  faculty," 

Born  a  farmer  in  1707,  removing  to  Pro- 
vidence  in    1 73 1,   a   member  of  the    General 

Assembly  in  1732,  Chief 
Justice  in  1739,  ^^^  ^^ 
the  committee  to  form 
Franklin's  plan  of  colon- 
ial union  at  Albany  in 
1 754,  a  signer  of  the 
Declaration  in  1776 — we 
have  here  the  full  meas- 
ure of  a  republican  citi- 
JU-^-T-^^i  X-  /  '  .  zen,  whether  by  the 
Stif-nql/UAi^  standard  of  Cato,  or  by 

the  later  models  of 
Franklin  and  Washing- 
ton. "  A  clear  and  convincing  speaker,  he 
used  his  influence  in  Congress  in  favor  of 
decisive  measures," 

In  1 758  the  first  postmaster  was  appointed  by 
Dr.  Franklin,  The  State  House  on  North 
Main    Street  was   erected   in   1 759  ;    the   Fire 


Mn^/tiAid 


FROM        APPLETONS'  CYCLO.    OF  AM.  BIOG. 
COPYRIGHT,  1887,  BY  D.  APPLETON  4  CO 


Providence  491 

Department  began  in  1 763  ;  a  "  vigorous  ef- 
fort"  was  made  for  free  schools  in  1767. 

A  great  change  was  wrought  about  1 763 
by  the  opening  of  Westminster  Street.  A  town 
named  for  Mr.  Fox's  poHtical  district  had  been 
projected  on  the  west  side.  It  was  strangled 
by  the  influence  of  the  southern  counties. 
Finally  the  way  across  the  marsh  was  laid  out. 
As  late  as  1771,  there  were  only  four  houses 
on  the  southern  and  one  on  the  northern  side 
of  Westminster  Street. 

Joseph  and  William  Russell,  Clark  and 
Nightingale,  with  James  Brown,  the  father 
of  the  four  brothers  mentioned  below,  were 
among  the  prominent  merchants  before  the 
Revolution. 

Next  to  the  political  change  of  colony  into 
State,  the  greatest  monument  of  the  larger 
Rhode  Island  is  the  University.  Rhode  Isl- 
and College,  to  become  Brown  University 
in  1804,  was  located  under  President  Man- 
ning at  Warren  in  1 766,  By  the  "  resolute 
spirits  of  the  Browns  and  some  other  men  of 
Providence,"  University  Hall  was  built  in 
1770.  A  government  stable  and  barrack  dur- 
ing the  Revolution,  it  has  been  a  beacon-light 
ever  since. 


492  Providence 

We  said  not  much  might  have  been  expected 
of  Httle  Rhody,  by  common  rules  of  historic 
proportion,  but  the  overt  acts  of  the  American 
Revolution  began  right  here  in  1772.  The 
oppressive  colonial  administration,  begun  by 
Grenville,  was  especially  vexatious  in  Narragan- 
sett  Bay.  The  British  cruiser  Gaspee,  attempt- 
ing an  illegal  seizure,  ran  aground  on  Namquit, 
since  known  as  Gaspee  Point.  The  news 
ran  like  lightning  through  the  town,  that  the 
Hawk  was  iettered  on  our  shore.  Four  broth- 
ers, Nicholas,  Joseph.  John  and  Moses,  de- 
scended from  Chad  Brown,  were  all  promin- 
ent merchants.  John  was  a  man  of  the  time. 
Afterward,  his  powder,  seized  in  a  raid  in 
the  British  West  Indies,  arrived  in  time  to  be 
issued  in  the  retreat  from  Bunker  Hill.  Brown 
planned  a  daring  attack  on  His  Majesty's 
vessel  in  James  Sabin's  inn.  The  historic  room 
has  been  transferred  bodily  by  the  Talbots 
to  their  home  at  209  Williams  Street.  Eight 
long-boats  were  provided  by  Brown  and  moved 
under  the  command  of  Abraham  Whipple, 
afterward  a  commodore  in  the  Revolutionary 
navy.  A  boat  from  Bristol  joined  the  party. 
Lieutenant  Duddingston  answered  the  hail  of 
the  patriot  raiders'  and  was  severely  wounded, 


f\ 


494  Providence 

shedding  the  first  British  blood  in  the  War 
of  Independence.  Whipple's  men  boarded 
the  cruiser,  drove  the  crew  below,  took  them 
off  prisoners,  then  fired  and  destroyed  the 
vessel.  It  shows  the  firm  temper  and  new 
American  loyalty  prevailing  in  the  town,  that 
large  rewards  brought  out  no  information 
which  would  effectively  prosecute  Brown  and 
Whipple  or  their  fellow  offenders.  Brown  was 
arrested  and  imprisoned  during  the  occupation 
of  Boston,  but  for  want  of  sufficient  proof  he 
was  discharged. 

Providence  contributed  its  full  share  to  the 
Revolution.  Stephen  Hopkins  signed  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  with  a  tremulous 
hand,  but  a  firm  heart.  Troops  were  freely 
furnished  and  privateers  brought  wealth  to 
the  town.  The  second  division  of  the  French 
contingent  passed  the  winter  of  1782  in  en- 
campment on  Harrington's  Lane.  The  street 
is  now  known  as  Rochambeau  Avenue.  New- 
port, hitherto  the  more  important  port,  lost  her 
commerce  through  the  British  occupation.  The 
natural  drift  of  commerce  to  the  farthest  in- 
land waters  available  was  precipitated  by  these 
political  changes.  Newport  never  recovered 
her  lost  prestige,   and    Providence   developed 


Providence  495 

rapidly  after  the  peace.  Voyages,  which  had 
been  mostly  to  the  West  Indies  with  an  occa- 
sional trip  to  Bilbao  and  the  Mediterranean, 
soon  stretched  around  the  world  to  harvest  the 
teeming  wealth  of  the  Chinese  and  Indian  seas. 
The  General  Washington,  the  first  vessel  from 
Providence  in  that  trade,  sailed  in  1787.  Ed- 
ward Carrington  sent  out  and  received  the  last 
vessels  in  1841.  In  the  early  years  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  the  profits  of  the  Oriental 
trade  were  very  great. 

The  manufacture  of  cotton  was  attempted 
by  several  parties,  but  it  was  not  established 
in  Providence.  Samuel  Slater  located  in  Paw- 
tucket  in  1790.  He  was  induced  to  come  to 
our  State  through  the  sagacity,  enterprise  and 
abundant  capital  of  Moses  Brown.  After  about 
a  year,  a  glut  of  yarns  occurred,  and  Almy, 
Brown  and  Slater  had  accumulated  nearly  six 
thousand  pounds.  Brown  said  :  "  Samuel,  if 
thee  goes  on,  thee  will  spin  up  all  our  farms." 
The  manufacture  extended  rapidly  and  became 
the  chief  source  of  the  prosperity  of  the  State. 
It  absorbed  the  capital,  which  was  gradually 
withdrawn  from  commerce  and  shipping. 

An  important  element  in  the  development 
of  our  city  has  been  the  free  banking  system. 


49^  Providence 

The  first  institution  in  our  State  and  the  second 
in  New  England  was  the  Providence  Bank, 
chartered  in  i  791. 

Newspapers  only  slightly  affected  the  life  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  They  began,  in  a 
humble  way,  the  great  part  they  were  to  play 
in  later,  modern  development.  The  Providence 
Gazette  and  Country  Journal  was  first  pub- 
lished in  1 762  by  William  Goddard.  The 
Manufacturers  and  Farmers  Journal,  still 
continuing  its  prosperous  career,  appeared  in 
1820.  The  Gazette  was  enlivened  by  adver- 
tisements in  verse,  of  which  this  is  a  specimen, 
from  the  year  i  796  : 

"  A  bunch  of  Grapes  is  Thurber's  sign, 
A  shoe  and  boot  is  made  on  mine. 
My  shop  doth  stand  in  Bowen's  Lane, 
And  Jonathan  Cady  is  my  name." 

Housekeepers  in  our  day  consider  the  ser- 
vant-girl question  a  hard  problem,  but  hear  the 
complaint  a  century  ago.  There  had  been 
taken  away 

"  from  the  servant  girls  in  this  town,  all  inclination  to 
do  any  kind  of  work,  and  left  in  lieu  thereof,  an  impudent 
appearance,  a  strong  and  continued  thirst  for  high  wages, 
a  gossiping  disposition  for  every  sort  of  amusement,  a 
leering  and  hankering  after  persons  of  the  other  sex,  a 


Providence  497 

desire  of  finery  and  fashion,  a  never-ceasing  trot  after 
new  places  more  advantageous  for  stealing,  with  a  num- 
ber of  contingent  accomplishments,  that  do  not  suit  the 
wearers.  Now  if  any  person  or  persons  will  restore  that 
degree  of  honesty  and  industry,  which  has  been  for 
some  time  missing," 

then  this  rugged  censor  offers  $500  reward. 

In  1767  the  first  regular  stage-coach  was  ad- 
vertised to  Boston.  In  1793  Hatch's  stages 
ran  to  Boston  and  charged  the  passengers  a 
fare  of  one  dollar,  the  same  sum  which  the 
railway  charges  to-day.  In  1796  a  navigable 
canal  was  projected  to  Worcester,  John  Brown 
being  an  active  promoter.  The  project  was  not 
carried  through  until  1828,  when  the  packet-boat 
Lady  Carrington  passed  through  the  Black- 
stone  Canal.  The  enterprise  had  poor  success. 
John  Brown  built  Washington  Bridge  across 
the  lower  Seekonk,  connecting  the  eastern  shore 
to  India  Point,  where  the  wealth  of  Ormus  and 
of  Ind  was  discharged  from  the  aromatic  ships. 
In  this  period  the  first  steamboat  came  from 
New  York  around  Point  Judith  and  connected 
with  stages  to  Boston. 

The  international  disputes  concerning  the 
embargo  and  non-intercourse  with  Great  Brit- 
ain, which  led   up  to  the  War  of   18 12,  found 


49^  Providence 

Providence  opposed  in  opinion  to  the  Execut- 
ive of  the  United  States.  But  the  opposition 
was  loyal  and  the  government  received  proper 
support.  Peace  was  very  welcome  when  it 
was  proclaimed  in  1815.  This  year,  a  tremend- 
ous gale  swept  the  ocean  into  the  bay  and 
the  bay  into  the  river,  carrying  ruin  in  their 
path.  The  waters  were  higher  by  some  seven 
feet  than  had  ever  been  known.  The  fierce 
winds  carried  the  salt  of  the  seas  as  far  inland 
as  Worcester.  Thirty  or  forty  vessels  were 
dashed  through  the  Weybosset  Bridge  into 
the  cove  above.  Others  were  swept  from  their 
moorings  and  stranded  among  the  wharves. 
Shops  were  smashed  or  damaged  and  the  whole 
devastation  cost  nearly  one  million  of  dollars — a 
great  sum  in  those  days.  It  was  a  radical 
measure  of  improvement.  New  streets  were 
opened  and  better  stores  rose  amid  the  ruins. 
South  Water  and  .South  West  Water  Streets 
date  hence,  and  Canal  Street  was  opened  soon 
after. 

In  1832  the  city  government  was  organized, 
with  Samuel  W.  Bridgham  for  mayor.  A  seri- 
ous riot  occurring  the  previous  year  had  shown 
that  the  old  town  government  was  outgrown. 
The    railways     to     Boston     and     Stonington 


Providence 


499 


changed  the  course  of  transportation.  In 
1848  the  Worcester  connection,  the  first  in- 
tersecting or  cross  Hne  in  New  England,  gave 
direct  intercourse  with  the  West. 

We  sent  out  Henry  Wheaton,  one  of  the 
masters  of  international  law,  and  we  adopted 
Francis  Wayland, — 
a  citizen  of  the 
world, — who  set  an 
endurinor  mark  on 
Rhode  Island.  Pre- 
sident of  Brown 
University,  1827- 
1855,  his  work  in 
the  American  edu- 
cational system  has 
not  yet  yielded  its 
full  f  ru  it.  He 
brought  teacher 
and  pupil  into  closer 
contact  by  the  liv- 
ing voice.  He  projected  a  practical  method 
for  elective  studies  and  put  it  in  operation  at 
Brown  University  in  1850.  Started  too  soon, 
and  with  insufficient  means,  it  opened  the  way 
to  success,  when  the  larger  universities  in- 
augurated similar  methods  after  the  Civil  War. 


FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 


500  Providence 

Nine  hundred  and  forty-six  students  now  at- 
tend where  Manning  and  Wayland  taught. 

An  armed  though  bloodless  insurrection  in 
1842  brought  our  State  to  the  verge  of  revolu- 
tion. The  old  charter  of  1663  limited  suffrage 
to  freeholders  and  their  oldest  sons.  Thomas 
Wilson  Dorr  was  the  champion  of  people's 
suffrage.  His  party  elected  him  governor 
with  a  legislature,  by  irregular  and  illegitimate 
voting.  They  mustered  in  arms  and  tried  to 
seize  the  State  arsenals  in  our  city.  Dorr  had 
a  strong  intellect  ;  he  was  a  sincere  and  unself- 
ish patriot,  though  perverse  and  foolish  in  his 
conduct  of  affairs.  The  suffrage  was  widened 
by  a  new  constitution  in  1843,  which  has  just 
been  revised  by  a  constitutional  commission. 

The  early  cotton  manufacture  was  fostered 
by  the  well-distributed  water-power  of  Rhode 
Island.  The  glacial  grinding  of  the  land  had 
left  numerous  ponds  and  minor  streams, — ad- 
mirable reservoirs  of  water-power, — just  the 
facilities  needed  for  weak  pioneers.  As  the 
century  advanced,  greater  force  was  needed. 
About  1847  George  H.  Corliss  bent  his  tal- 
ents and  energies  to  extend  the  power  of  the 
high-pressure  steam-engine.  He  adapted  and 
developed  better  cut-off  valves,  which  preserved 


Providence  501 

the  whole  expansive  force  of  the  steam,  stopped 
off  before  it  filled  the  cylinder.  It  was  a  new 
lever  of  Archimedes,  and  Corliss's  machines 
went  over  the  whole  world.  This  new  mas- 
tery of  force  stimulated  all  industries. 

Our  little  community  showed  its  customary 
military  spirit  in  1861.  Governor  William 
Sprague  mustered  troops  with  great  energy. 
After  the  famous  Massachusetts  6th,  the 
Rhode  Island  ist  Militia  with  its  ist  Battery 
were  the  first  reinforcements  which  arrived  at 
Washington.  In  field  artillery,  our  volunteers 
were  especially  proficient. 

The  growth  of  the  population  of  Providence 
is  shown  in  the  following  table  : 

1708 1,446  1840 23,172 

1730 3,916  1850 41,513 

1774 4,321  i860 50,666 

1800 7,614  1870 68,904 

1810 10,071  1880 104,857 

1820 11,745  1885 118,070 

1830 16,836  1895 145,472 

We  could  not  notice  all  parts  of  Providence 
in  this  cursory  survey.  Small  as  well  as  large 
implements  of  iron,  jewelry  and  silver,  the 
invention  and   immense   production  of  wood- 


502  Providence 

screws,  india-rubber,  worsted, — all  these  com- 
plicated industries  have  built  up  an  extending 
and  encroaching  city,  until  now  three  hundred 
thousand  people  dwell  within  a  radius  of  ten 
miles  from  our  City  Hall. 

Old  Providence,  the  home  of  Williams  and 
the  Quakers,  is  fading  away.  The  "  Towne 
Streete,"  its  meandering  curves  gradually 
straightening,  will  hardly  be  recognized  a  cent- 
ury hence.  The  Mowry  house,  the  homes  of 
Stephen  and  Esek  Hopkins,  are  small,  when 
compared  with  the  mansions  of  John  Brown, 
Thomas  P.  Ives,  Sullivan  Dorr  and  Edward 
Carrington  ;  while  the  solid  comfort  prevailing 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  as  embodied  in  these 
houses,  is  surpassed,  though  it  may  not  be 
bettered,  by  the  more  pretentious  domestic 
architecture  of  our  day.  The  Independent 
worshipers  in  the  First  Baptist  and  First 
Conpfreofational  churches  would  feel  strano-e 
under  the  domes  of  the  beautiful  Central  Con- 
gregational. The  Anglicans  of  the  first  St. 
John's  would  be  bewildered  by  the  pointed 
arches  of  St.  Stephen's.  The  few  Catholic 
immigrants,  bringing  the  Host  across  the  seas 
with  tender  care,  and  resting  at  St.  Peter  and 
St.   Paul's,  would  be  amazed  by  the  swarm  of 


504  Providence 

well-to-do  citizens  clustering  beneath  the  mas- 
sive towers  of  the  Cathedral. 

The  industrial  and  economic  evolution  is  fully 
as  great  as  the  aesthetic  and  architectural. 
The  crazy  little  organism  of  Almy,  Brown  and 
Slater  is  replaced  by  the  long,  whirling  shafts, 
the  spindled  acres  of  the  Goddards'  Ann  and 
Hope  Mill  at  Lonsdale.  The  homely  security 
of  the  market  house  (present  Board  of  Trade), 
the  Providence  Bank  and  the  "  Arcade  "  is 
overshadowed  by  the  City  Hall,  the  Rhode 
Island  Hospital  and  Rhode  Island  Hospital 
Trust  Company.  University  Hall  burgeons 
into  the  fair  arches  of  Sayles  Hall.  No  medi- 
eval builder  worked  more  reverently  than  Al- 
pheus  C.  Morse,  as  he  devotedly  wrought  at  his 
task,  getting  the  best  lines  into  stone  and  lime. 

Not  always  does  the  work  of  the  modern 
builders  tend  toward  beauty.  The  masterly 
brick  arcades  of  Thomas  A.  Teft  kept  the 
city's  approaches  for  a  half-century.  Swept 
away  by  the  more  convenient  passenger  sta- 
tion of  the  New  York  and  New  Haven  Rail- 
way, they  will  leave  behind  many  regrets. 
The  magnificent  marble  State  House  will  lift 
the  observer  away  from  and  above  all  the 
buildings  below. 


Providence  505 

The  growth  of  Providence  runs  even  with 
the  State's,  except  in  the  excrescent  kixury  of 
Newport  in  its  summer  bloom.  We  cannot 
stand  still  like  Holland  ;  we  must  look  outward 
or  decay.  The  American  destiny  is  reaching 
out,  notwithstanding  the  caution  of  the  prud- 
ent, perhaps  of  the  judicious.  The  mystic 
Orient,  no  longer  mysterious,  beckons  from  the 
West  instead  of  the  East.  It  led  the  Browns, 
Iveses,  Carringtons,  Maurans,  and  their  capt- 
ains, the  Holdens,  Ormsbees,  Paiges  and 
Comstocks,  to  opulence.  Their  descendants, 
with  more  abundant  capital,  ready  skill  and 
better  organization,  ought  not  to  lag  in  the 
world's  march.      Men  must  be  forthcoming. 

There  has  been  always  a  cosmopolitan  flavor 
in  the  little  State,  isolated  between  the  restless 
intellectual  energy  of  Massachusetts  and  the 
steady  Puritan  development  of  Connecticut. 
Boston  had  more  trade  than  Providence  and 
Newport ;  she  was  not  so  truly  commercial. 
The  larger  Franklin  went  over  to  Pennsyl- 
vania, but  the  next  man,  Stephen  Hopkins, 
stayed  in  Rhode  Island.  The  seed  which 
Berkeley  planted  sprouted  in  Channing,  and 
that  influence  went  throughout  New  England. 
The  little  State  has  never  been  without  ideas. 


5o6 


HARTFORD 

"THE    BIRTHPLACE   OF   AMERICAN 
DEMOCRACY" 

By   MARY    K.    TALCOTT 

AMONG  the  historic  cities  of  New  Eng- 
land, Hartford  claims  a  foremost  place. 
Not  only  was  its  settlement  of  great  conse- 
quence at  the  time,  but  for  historical  importance 
and  far-reaching  results  this  colony's  claims  to 
attention  are  second  only  to  those  of  Plymouth 
and  Boston.  The  foundation  of  Hartford  was 
a  further  application  and  development  of  the 
ideas  that  brought  the  Puritans  to  this  country, 
and,  to  quote  the  historian,  Johnston, — 

"  Here  is  the  first  practical  assertion  of  the  right  of 
the  people,  not  only  to  choose,  but  to  limit  the  powers 
of  their  rulers,  an  assertion  which  lies  at  the  foundation 
of  the  American  system.  .  .  .  It  is  on  the  banks  of 
the  Connecticut,  under  the  mighty  preaching  of  Thomas 
Hooker,  and  in  the  constitution  to  which  he  gave  life,  if 
not  form,  that  we  draw  the  first  breath  of  that  atmosphere 

507 


5o8  Hartford 

which  is  now  so  familiar  to  us.  The  birthplace  of 
American  democracy  is  Hartford." 

This  constitution,  first  promulgated  in  Hart- 
ford, was  the  first  written  constitution  in  history 
which  was  adopted  by  a  people  and  which  also 
organized  a  government.     John  Fiske  says: 

"  The  compact  drawn  up  in  the  Mayflower's  cabin  was 
not,  in  the  strict  sense,  a  constitution,  which  is  a  docu- 
ment defining  and  limiting  the  functions  of  government. 
Magna  Charta  partook  of  the  nature  of  a  written 
constitution  as  far  as  it  went,  but  it  did  not  create  a 
government." 

On  the  14th  of  January,  1639,  the  freemen 
of  the  three  towns,  Windsor,  Hartford,  and 
Wethersfield,  assembled  at  Hartford,  and 
drew  up  a  constitution,  consisting  of  eleven 
articles,  which  they  called  the  "  Fundamental 
Orders  of  Connecticut,"  and  under  this  law  the 
people  of  Connecticut  lived  for  nearly  two 
centuries,  as  the  Charter  granted  by  King 
Charles  H.,  in  1662,  was  simply  a  royal  recog- 
nition of  the  government  actually  in  operation. 
Another  writer  says  : 

"  We  honor  the  limitations  of  despotism  which  are 
written  in  the  twelve  tables  ;  the  repression  of  monarch- 
ical power  in  Magna  Charta,  in  the  Bill  of  Rights,  and 


5IO  Hartford 

in  that  whole  undefinable  creation,  as  invisible  and  in- 
tangible as  the  atmosphere  but  like  it  full  of  oxygen 
and  electricity,  which  we  call  the  British  Constitution. 
But  in  our  Connecticut  Constitution  we  find  no  limitation 
upon  monarchy,  for  monarchy  is  unrecognized  ;  the 
limitations  are  upon  the  legislature,  the  courts,  and 
executive.  It  is  pure  democracy  acting  through  repre- 
sentation, and  imposing  organic  limitations.  Even  the 
suffrage  qualification  of  church  membership,  which  was 
required  by  our  older  sister  Colony  of  Massachusetts, 
was  omitted.  Here  in  a  New  England  wilderness  a  few 
pilgrims  of  the  pilgrims,  alive  to  the  inspirations  of  the 
common  law  and  of  the  British  Constitution,  so  full  of 
Christianity  that  they  felt  the  great  throb  of  its  heart  of 
human  brotherhood,  and  so  full  of  Judaism  that  they 
believed  themselves  in  some  special  sense  the  people  of 
God,  made  a  written  constitution,  to  be  a  supreme  and 
organic  law  for  their  State." 

But  for  the  immediate  inspiration  of  this 
document  we  must  look  to  a  "lecture," 
preached  by  Mr.  Hooker  on  Thursday,  May 
21,  1638,  before  the  legislative  body  of  free- 
men.     Dr.  Bacon  says  of  it : 

"  That  sermon,  by  Thomas  Hooker,  is  the  earliest 
known  suggestion  of  a  fundamental  lav/,  enacted,  not  by 
royal  charter  nor  by  concession  from  any  previously 
existing  government,  but  by  the  people  themselves, — a 
primary  and  supreme  law  by  which  the  government  is 
constituted,  and   which  not  only   provides  for  the  free 


Hartford  511 

choice  of  magistrates  by  the  people,  but  also  sets  the 
bounds  and  limitations  of  the  power  and  place  to  which 
each  magistrate  is  called." 

But  we  must  know  something  of  a  people  to 
whom  such  doctrines  were  preached — of  a 
people  capable  of  receiving  and  applying  such 
truths.  It  is  said  that  three  kingdoms  were 
sifted  to  furnish  the  men  who  settled  New  Eng- 
land, and  it  may  also  be  said  that  the  Massa- 
chusetts Colony  was  sifted  to  supply  the 
Connecticut  settlers.  Three  of  the  eight 
Massachusetts  towns,  Dorchester,  Watertown, 
and  Newtown  (now  Cambridge),  were  not  in 
full  agreement  with  the  other  five,  especially 
on  the  fundamental  feature  of  the  Massachu- 
setts polity,  the  limitation  of  office-holding  and 
the  voting  privilege  to  church-members.  At 
first  the  majority  were  unwilling  to  grant  the 
minority  "liberty  to  remove."  John  Haynes 
was  made  Governor  of  Massachusetts  in  1635, 
probably  with  the  hope  of  retaining  his  friends 
in  the  Colony.  But  their  desire  to  leave  was 
too  strong ;  small  parties  of  emigrants  made 
their  way  to  the  banks  of  the  Connecticut 
during  the  year  1635,  but  the  main  body  of 
the  colonists  did  not  leave  until  the  spring  of 
1636.       Dr.     Benjamin    Trumbull,     the    first 


512  Hartford 

historian  of  Connecticut,  writing  more  than 
one   hundred   years   ago,    says : 

'y 
"  About  the  beginning  of  June  Mr.  Hooker,  Mr. 
Stone,  and  about  a  hundred  men,  women,  and  children 
took  their  departure  from  Cambridge,  and  travelled  more 
than  a  hundred  miles  thro'  a  hideous  and  trackless 
wilderness  to  Hartford.  They  had  no  guide  but 
their  compass  ;  made  their  way  over  mountains,  thro' 
swamps,  thickets,  and  rivers,  which  were  not  passable 
but  with  great  difficulty.  They  had  no  cover  but  the 
heavens,  nor  any  lodgings  but  those  which  simple 
naturo^'afforded  them.  They  drove  with  them  a  hundred 
and  sixty  head  of  cattle,  and  by  the  way  subsisted  on 
the  milk  of  their  cows.  Mrs.  Hooker  was  borne  through 
the  wilderness  upon  a  litter.  The  people  generally 
carried  their  packs,  arms,  and  some  utensils.  They  were 
nearly  a  fortnight  on  their  journey." 

Trumbull  adds  :  "  This  adventure  was  the 
more  remarkable,  as  many  of  this  company 
were  persons  of  figure,  who  had  lived  in  Eng- 
land in  honor,  affluence,  and  delicacy,  and 
were  entire  strangers  to  fatigue  and  danger." 
When  dismissing  these  colonists  Massachusetts 
sent  with  them  a  governing  committee,  or 
commissioners,  as  they  were  called.  At  a 
meeting  of  these  commissioners,  held  February 
2  1,  1637,  the  plantation,  which  had  been  called 
Newtown,  was  named   Hartford.     As  Gover- 


514  Hartford 

nor  Haynes  was  born  in  the  immediate  vicinity 
of  the  EngHsh  Hertford,  he  probably  had 
much  influence  in  naming  the  new  plantation. 
On  the  nth  of  April,  1639,  the  first  general 
meeting  of  the  freemen  under  the  constitution 
was  held,  and  John  Haynes  was  elected  the 
first  Governor  of  Connecticut.  This  selection 
shows  his  active  sympathy  and  co-operation 
with  Hooker,  and  we  can  entirely  agree  with 
Bancroft,  when  he  says:  "They  who  judge 
of  men  by  their  services  to  the  human  race 
will  never  cease  to  honor  the  memory  of 
Hooker,  and  of  Haynes." 

But  the  soil  of  Hartford  h9.s  had  other 
occupants ;  not  only  the  aboriginal  owners 
of  the  soil,  for  when  the  English  came 
they  found  a  Dutch  trading-post  established 
on  what  is  yet  known  as  Dutch  Point.  The 
English  claimed  the  territory  now  compre- 
hended in  the  State  of  Connecticut  by  virtue 
of  the  discoveries  of  John  and  Sebastian  Cabot 
in  1497,  and  more  especially  in  1498.  This 
territory  was  included  in  the  grant  to  the  Ply- 
mouth Company  in  1606,  but  that  organization 
undertook  no  work  of  colonization.  When  the 
settlers  of  1635  came  they  took  possession  of 
this  portion  of  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut 


Hartford  515 

under  the  English  flag,  and  claimed  the  terri- 
tory by  virtue  of  patents  from  the  English 
crown.  They  paid  Sequassen,  the  Indian 
chief,  who  ruled  the  river  Indians,  for  his  lands, 
and  when  the  Pequots,  his  over-lords,  disputed 
Sequassen's  right  to  sell,  the  colonists  attacked 
them,  and  practically  exterminated  the  tribe. 
The  Dutch  settlement  originated  from  discov- 
eries by  Adrian  Block,  who  sailed  through  the 
Sound  in  1614,  and  up  the  Connecticut,  or 
Fresh  River,  as  he  called  it,  in  his  sloop,  The 
Unrest,  as  far  as  the  falls,  and  upon  his  report 
to  the  States-general,  a  company  was  formed 
for  trading  in  the  New  Netherlands.  Only 
limited  privileges  were  granted  to  this  com- 
pany, and  it  was  afterwards  superseded  by  the 
Dutch  West  India  Company,  to  whom  the  ex- 
clusive governmental  and  commercial  rights  for 
the  territory  were  granted.  The  Dutch  were 
influenced  much  more  by  the  desire  for  a 
lucrative  trade  with  the  natives  than  by  any 
wish  to  found  a  colony,  and  in  1633  they  built 
a  fort  on  the  spot  still  called  Dutch  Point,  in 
Hartford,  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  their 
traffic  with  the  Indians,  which  they  had  been 
carrying  on  for  some  ten  years.  This  fort  was 
known  as  the  House  of   Hope,  and  when  the 


5i6  Hartford 

English  came  they  settled  all  about  it,  but  did 
not  interfere  with  the  Dutch  occupation.  Nat- 
urally, there  was  friction  between  the  two 
nationalities,  and  petty  trespasses  of  various 
kinds  were  charged  by  both  parties.  Finally, 
after  repeated  complaints,  the  Commission- 
ers of  the  United  Colonies,  Massachusetts, 
Plymouth,  Connecticut,  and  New  Haven,  met 
at  Hartford,  September  ii,  1650,  with  Peter 
Stuyvesant,  Director  of  the  New  Netherlands, 
to  consult  upon  the  proper  boundaries  of  the 
Dutch  jurisdiction.  The  matter  was  referred 
to  arbitrators,  and  resulted  in  a  transfer  to  the 
English  of  all  the  territory  lying  west  of  the 
Connecticut  except  the  land  in  Hartford  actu- 
ally occupied  by  the  Dutch,  the  New  Nether- 
lands taking  the  country  east  of  the  river. 
But  this  arrangement  did  not  last  long,  as,  in 
1653,  war  was  declared  between  England  and 
Holland,  and  the  colonies  were  required  by 
Parliament  to  treat  the  Dutch  as  the  declared 
enemies  of  the  Commonwealth  of  England. 
Trumbull  says  : 

"  In  conformity  to  this  order  the  General  Court  was 
convened,  and  an  act  passed  sequestering  the  Dutch 
house,  lands,  and  property  of  all  kinds  at  Hartford,  for 
the  benefit  of  the  Commonwealth  ;  and  the  Court  also 


Hartford  5  ^  7 

prohibited  all  persons,  whatsoever,  from  improving  the 
premises  by  virtue  of  any  former  claim  or  title  had, 
made,  or  given,  by  any  of  the  Dutch  nation,  or  any 
other  person,  without  their  approbation." 

Even  after  this  change  of  rulers  a  few  of  the 
Dutch  traders  remained  in  Hartford,  as  is 
shown  by  references  to  them  on  the  records, 
but  they  all  finally  returned  to  the  New 
Netherlands. 

During  the  next  thirty  years  the  little  settle- 
ment on  the  banks  of  the  Connecticut  con- 
tinued to  grow  and  prosper,  having  very  little 
to  do  with  the  affairs  of  the  outside  world. 
In  1675  and  1676,  King  Philip's  War  caused 
great  alarm  and  anxiety  for  a  time,  but  after 
this  conflict  was  concluded  by  the  subjugation 
of  the  Indians,  peace  and  quietness  again 
reigned.  Soon  after  the  accession  of  James 
II.,  in  1685,  this  quiet  was  however  rudely  dis- 
turbed by  the  issue  of  a  writ  of  quo  wam^anto 
against  the  Governor  and  Company  of  Con- 
necticut, summoning  them  to  appear  before 
his  Majesty,  and  show  by  what  warrant  they 
exercised  certain  powers.  In  reply,  the  Colony 
pleaded  the  Charter,  granted  by  the  King's 
royal  brother,  made  strong  professions  of  their 
loyalty,   and    begged  a    continuance   of   their 


5i8  Hartford 

privileges.  Two  more  writs  of  quo  warranto 
were  issued  against  Connecticut,  but  she  still 
refused  to  surrender  her  Charter,  and  re- 
elected Robert  Treat  as  Governor.  The  Char- 
ter of  Massachusetts  had  been  vacated,  and 
Chalmers,  in  his  History  of  the  American 
Colojiies,  says  that  "  Rhode  Island  and  Con- 
necticut were  two  little  republics  embosomed 
in  a  great  empire."  Rhode  Island,  however, 
submitted  to  his  Majesty,  so  Connecticut  stood 
alone  in  refusing  to  surrender  her  Charter. 
In  the  latter  part  of  1686,  Sir  Edmund  Andros 
arrived  in  Boston,  bearing  his  royal  commis- 
sion as  Governor  of  New  England.  After 
some  correspondence  with  Governor  Treat, 
who  still  stood  firm,  he  left  Boston  for  Hart- 
ford, with  several  members  of  his  Council  and 
a  small  troop  of  horse.  When  he  arrived  in 
Hartford,  October  31,  1687,  he  was  escorted 
by  the  Hartford  County  Troop,  and  met  with 
great  courtesy  by  the  Governor  and  his  assist- 
ants. Sir  Edmund  was  conducted  to  the  Gov- 
ernor's seat  in  the  council  chamber,  and  at 
once  demanded  the  Charter.     Trumbull  says  : 

"  The  tradition  is  that  Governor  Treat  strongly  repre- 
sented the  great  expense  and  hardships  of  the  colonists 
in  planting  the  country,  the  blood  and  treasure  which 


Hartford  519 

Ihey  had  expended  in  defending  it,  both  against  the 
savages  and  foreigners  ;  to  what  hardships  and  dangers 
he  himself  had  been  exposed  for  that  purpose  ;  and  that 
it  was  like  giving  up  his  life  now  to  surrender  the  patent 
and  privileges  so  dearly  bought,  and  so  long  enjoyed. 
The  important  affair  was  debated  and  kept  in  suspense 
until  the  evening,  when  the  Charter  was  brought  and 
laid  upon  the  table,  where  the  Assembly  were  sitting. 
By  this  time  great  numbers  of  people  were  assembled, 
and  men  sufficiently  bold  to  enterprise  whatever  might 
be  necessary,  or  expedient.  The  lights  were  instantly 
extinguished,  and  one  Captain  Wadsworth,  of  Hartford, 
in  the  most  silent  and  secret  manner  carried  off  the 
Charter,  and  secreted  it  in  a  large  hollow  tree,  fronting 
the  house  of  the  Honorable  Samuel  Wyllys,  then  .one  of 
the  Magistrates  of  the  Colony.  The  people  appeared  all 
peaceable  and  orderly.  The  candles  were  officiously  re- 
lighted, but  the  patent  was  gone,  and  no  discovery  could 
be  made  of  it,  or  of  the  person  who  had  conveyed  it 
away." 

Sir  Edmund  was  disconcerted,  but  declared 
the  government  of  the  colony  to  be  in  his 
own  hands,  annexed  Connecticut  to  Massa- 
chusetts and  the  other  New  England  colonies, 
appointed  officers,  and  returned  to  Boston. 
After  the  downfall  of  Andros,  in  1689,  Gov- 
ernor Treat  resumed  his  position  as  Governor 
of  Connecticut,  and  the  Charter  reappeared 
from  its  seclusion,  and  continued  to  be  the 
organic  law  of  Connecticut,  although  in  Parlia- 


520 


Hartford 


ment,  during  the  remainder  of  the  colonial 
period,  various  attempts  were  made  to  have  it 
abrogated.  But  the  Charter  Oak,  where  tra- 
dition declared  that  the  document  was  con- 
cealed, continued  to  be  a  sacred  and  venerated 
object  until  its  fall,  August  21,  1856. 


THE  CHARTER    OAK. 


A  people  that  have  no  history  are  the  hap- 
piest, therefore  we  may  assume  that  Hartford 
was  a  happy  and  flourishing  town  during  the 
remainder   of   the    colonial   period,   and  even 


Hartford  521 

during  the  Revolution  there  is  but  Httle 
to  tell  of  Hartford.  Its  situation,  so  far  re- 
moved from  the  seacoast,  secured  it  from  the 
attacks  of  the  British  troops,  and  it  was  for 
that  very  reason  a  safe  and  desirable  place  for 
the  meetings  of  Generals  Washington  and 
Rochambeau,  when  they  wished  to  arrange  the 
plans  for  the  campaigns  that  ended  with  the 
surrender  of  Yorktown.  The  first  of  these 
historic  meetings  took  place  September  1 7, 
1 780.  Rochambeau  came  from  Newport 
through  Eastern  Connecticut,  and  Washing- 
ton rode  from  New  Windsor  on  the  Hudson 
with  a  guard  of  twenty-two  dragoons.  The 
meeting  took  place  in  the  public  square  on 
the  site  of  the  present  post-office,  and  as  the 
two  tall,  fine-looking  commanders-in-chief  ap- 
proached each  other  bowing,  an  eye-witness 
said  that  it  was  like  the  meeting  of  two  na- 
tions. The  following  year  another  meeting 
took  place  at  Wethersfield. 

During  the  colonial  period  there  was  very 
little  literary  production  in  America,  except 
sermons  and  theological  treatises,  and  Hart- 
ford was  no  exception  to  this  rule.  Her  first 
author  was  one  of  her  founders,  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Hooker,  "  The  Light  of  the  Western 


522  Hartford 

Churches."  His  writings  consisted  exclusively 
of  sermons.  They  were  first  published  in 
London,  and  but  few  have  been  reprinted  in 
this  country.  No  preacher  of  great  reputation 
succeeded  him,  nor  any  writers  whatever.  But 
during  the  Revolution  a  star  arose  on  the  hori- 
zon,— McFingal.  The  first  part  of  the  poem 
appeared  as  independent  verses  in  the  Con- 
necticut Courant  in  1775.  General  Gage  had 
issued  a  fierce  proclamation,  threatening  to 
exempt  from  general  pardon  some  of  the 
Continental  leaders,  and  Trumbull's  poem 
burlesqued  the  manifesto.  It  was  at  once 
reproduced  in  the  Philadelphia  papers,  and 
undoubtedly  did  a  very  important  work  in 
stimulating  the  thought  and  passion  of  the 
American  Revolution.  About  1782  the  whole 
work  was  published  by  Messrs.  Hudson  & 
Goodwin,  "  near  the  Great  Bridge,  Hartford." 
Tradition  states  that  the  scene  of  the  "  Town 
Meeting"  refers  to  the  old  South  Church  in 
this  city.  Nathaniel  Patten,  an  enterprising, 
and  not  over-scrupulous  printer  in  Hartford, 
issued  a  second  edition  of  McFingal,  without  the 
author's  consent,  and  it  is  an  interesting  fact 
thrit  out  of  this  piracy  of  Trumbull's  work  here 
in  Hartford  grew  the  national  copyright  law. 


Hartford  523 

Trumbull  and  Noah  Webster  both  exerted 
themselves  strenuously  in  favor  of  such  a  law, 
and,  in  1783,  the  General  Assembly  of  Con- 
necticut passed  an  "  Act  for  the  Encourage- 
ment of  Literature  and  Genius,"  which  secured 
to  authors  their  copyright  within  the  State. 
The  personal  exertions  of  Noah  Webster  in 
defense  of  his  spelling-book  led  to  the  passage 
of  similar  laws  by  the  legislatures  of  other 
States,  and  finally  to  the  passage  of  a  general 
law  by  Congress,  modelled  on  the  Connecticut 
act  of  1 783.  All  the  literature  of  that  period 
in  America  bears  the  impress  of  the  golden 
age  of  Queen  Anne,  the  Spectator  and  the 
Tatler,  Addison  and  Steele  ;  and  McFingal 
reminds  the  reader  now  of  Hiidibras,  now 
of  the  Dunciad. 

John  Trumbull  was  born  in  Watertown,  Con- 
necticut, then  Westbury,  April  24,  1750.  Both 
on  his  father's  side  and  his  mother's  he  was  of 
the  pure  Brahmin  stock  of  New  England,  and 
through  his  mother  he  was  related  to  Jonathan 
Edwards,  Timothy  Dwight,  his  fellow-poet, 
and  many  other  writers  of  a  later  time.  He 
exhibited  marvellous  precocity,  and,  his  father 
being  engaged  in  preparing  a  youth  of  sev- 
enteen   for    examination    at    Yale,    the    boy 


524  Hartford 

of  seven  was  so  eager  to  join  in  the  elder 
youth's  studies  that  his  father  allowed  him  to 
go  through  the  same  course  of  Greek,  Latin, 
and  Mathematics.  Both  the  lads  passed, 
and  were  admitted  members  of  the  college, 
but  the  boy  of  seven  was  not  allowed  to  pro- 
ceed with  his  college  course  until  he  was  older. 
He  early  began  writing  essays  of  a  satirical 
nature,  and  while  a  tutor  at  his  Alma  Mater 
he  wrote  The  Progress  of  Dulness,  a  keen  and 
stinging  satire  on  contemporary  life.  It  also 
shows,  like  McFingal,  the  technical  precision 
of  the  literary  artist.  The  year  1774  Trum- 
bull, spent  in  the  law-ofifice  of  John  Adams,  in 
Boston,  then  returned  to  New  Haven,  and  in 
1 78 1  took  up  his  residence  in  Hartford,  where 
he  remained  until  1825,  when  he  went  to  Detroit 
to  live  with  a  married  daughter,  and  died  there 
in  1 83 1.  In  his  later  life  he  gave  up  litera- 
ture for  the  law,  and  was  at  different  times 
State  Attorney  for  Hartford  County,  Repre- 
sentative to  the  State  Legislature,  Judge  of 
the  Superior  Court  (1801-1819),  and  Judge 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Errors  (1808-1819). 
In  the  first  decade  of  our  independence  the 
"  Hartford  Wits  "  made  this  little  provincial 
capital  a  brilliant   intellectual   centre,  and  an 


Hartford  525 

important  focus  of  political  influence.  The 
original  members  of  the  association  or  club 
were,  Dr.  Lemuel  Hopkins,  John  Trumbull, 
Joel  Barlow,  and  David  Humphreys.  We 
may  call  it  remarkable,  because,  at  that  time, 
when  Boston  was  as  barren  of  literary  talent 
as  she  has  since  been  prolific,  this  little  town 
of  three  thousand  inhabitants  boasted  at  least 
four  poets  who  had  gained  a  national  reputa- 
tion. Hopkins  was  born  in  Waterbury,  Con- 
necticut, in  I  750,  was  a  distinguished  physician, 
and  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Connecticut 
Medical  Society.  He  died  in  Hartford  in 
1 80 1,  and  his  grave  may  be  seen  in  the  old 
Center  burying-ground.  No  edition  of  his  col- 
lected poems  has  ever  been  published.  They 
consisted  in  great  part  of  his  contributions  to 
the  Anarchiad,  the  Political  Greenhouse,  and 
the  Echo,  which  were  serial  satires  in  verse 
by  the  Hartford  Wits.  Th.^  A ?ia re hiad  resem- 
bled the  Rolliad  of  Frere  and  Canning,  and 
with  the  Echo  contained  a  series  of  social  and 
political  satires.  Hartford  at  this  time,  became 
and  for  twenty  years  thereafter  was,  the  liter- 
ary headquarters  of  the  Federalist  or  Conser- 
vative party,  which  favored  a  strong,  general 
government,  and  opposed  French  democracy. 


526  Hartford 

In  consequence,  as  party  feeling  ran  so  high, 
it  became  a  mark  for  obloquy  and  vituperation 
among  the  Jeffersonians,  which  gave  it  an 
honorable  resemblance  to  Boston  in  the  anti- 
slavery  times. 

David  Humphreys  was  born  in  Derby, 
Connecticut,  in  1753,  served  honorably  dur- 
ing the  Revolution,  and  had  the  distinction 
of  being  Washington's  aid-de-camp.  He  also 
held,  after  the  war,  the  position  of  secretary 
to  the  commissioners — Franklin,  Jefferson, 
and  Adams — appointed  to  negotiate  treaties 
of  commerce  with  various  European  powers. 
Joel  Barlow  is  perhaps  the  best  known  of  any 
of  the  Wits,  and  but  a  small  portion  of  his 
career  was  passed  in  Hartford.  He  took  up 
his  residence  in  our  town  in  1782,  just  after 
leaving  the  army.  He  was  then  engaged  in 
writing  his  best  known  poem,  the  epic  Vision 
of  Columbits,  but  he  did  much  other  literary 
work,  and  was  also  the  editor  of  a  weekly 
newspaper,  called  The  American  Merc2iry\ 
for  which  he  wrote  many  essays,  said  to  be  the 
precursors  of  the  modern  editorial.  In  1787, 
he  completed  the  Vision  of  Cobunbiis,  and  it 
was  published  by  subscription  and  dedicated 
to  Louis  XVI.,  King  of  France.      During  the 


Hartford  527 

next  year,  1788,  Barlow  left  Hartford  to  go 
abroad ;  he  remained  in  Europe  for  seven- 
teen years,  and  when  he  returned  took  up 
his  residence  in  Washington,  Finally,  going 
abroad  as  Ambassador  to  France,  he  died  in 
Poland,  while  following  Napoleon  then  en- 
gaged in  his  Russian  campaign.  Richard 
Alsop  and  Theodore  Dwight,  Senior,  were 
admitted  into  the  coterie  of  the  Hartford 
Wits,  and  wrote  much  of  the  Echo,  and  a  few 
lines  in  this  series  were  also  contributed  by 
Drs.  Mason  F.  Cogswell  and  Elihu  H.  Smith. 
The  Echo  was  a  sort  of  Yankee  Diinciad. 
It  contained  many  local  allusions,  as  to  the 
Blue  Laws,  the  Windham  Frogs,  etc.,  and 
was  also  the  vehicle  of  much  political  satire 
on  the  Democrats.  Theodore  Dwight,  one  of 
the  Echo  poets,  was  editor  of  the  ConnccticiU 
Mirror,  and  also  secretary  of  the  famous 
Hartford  Convention. 

No  political  subject  has  ever  been  the  theme 
of  more  gross  misrepresentation  or  more  con- 
stant reproach  than  the  assembly  of  delegates 
from  the  New  England  States  which  met  at 
Hartford  in  December,  18 14.  After  the  war 
of  1 81 2  had  continued  two  years,  our  public 
affairs  were   in  a  deplorable  condition.     The 


528  Hartford 

army  intended  for  defending  the  sea-coast  had 
been  sent  to  the  borders  to  attack  Canada  ;  a 
British  squadron  was  lying  in  the  Sound  to 
blockade  the  harbors  on  the  Connecticut 
coast,  and  to  intercept  our  coasting  trade ; 
the  banks,  south  of  New  England,  had 
suspended  the  payment  of  specie ;  our  ship- 
ping lay  in  our  harbors,  embargoed,  disman- 
tled, and  perishing  ;  the  Treasury  of  the 
United  States  was  nearly  exhausted,  and  a 
general  disheartenment  prevailed  throughout 
the  country.  In  this  situation  of  affairs  a 
number  of  gentlemen  in  Massachusetts  be- 
lieved that  a  convention  of  prominent  men 
might  do  good.  Many  petitions  from  numer- 
ous towns  in  Massachusetts  were  received, 
stating  the  sufferings  of  the  country  in  conse- 
quence of  the  embargo  and  the  war,  and  Gov- 
ernor Strong  summoned  a  special  meeting  of 
the  Massachusetts  Legislature  in  October, 
1 8 14,  when  a  resolution  was  passed  appointing 
delegates  to  a  convention  to  be  held  in  Hart- 
ford.  The  Connecticut  Legislature  was  in 
session  at  the  same  time,  and  received  a  com- 
munication from  the  Massachusetts  body,  re- 
questing them  to  join  in  appointing  delegates 
to  the  convention.     This  they  did,  and  seven 


OLD   STATE    HOUSE, 

NOW    CITV     HALL. 


529 


530  Hartford 

delegates  were  sent.  On  December  15, 
1 8 14,  the  convention,  numbering  twenty-six 
delegates,  representing  Massachusetts,  New 
Hampshire,  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  and 
Vermont,  met  in  the  council  chamber  of  the 
State  House,  now  the  City  Hall  of  Hartford. 
Among  the  delegates  were  men  of  such  as- 
sured position  as  Harrison  Gray  Otis,  George 
Cabot,  William  Prescott,  the  father  of  the 
historian,  and  Stephen  Longfellow,  the  father 
of  the  poet,  from  Massachusetts ;  Chaun- 
cey  Goodrich,  Governor  John  Treadwell, 
Roger  Minot  Sherman,  and  James  Hillhouse, 
of  Connecticut.  Their  deliberations  contin- 
ued for  three  weeks,  and  their  sittings  were 
held  with  closed  doors,  a  fact  which  was 
brought  up  against  them  by  their  political  ad- 
versaries as  evidence  of  dark  and  nefarious 
designs.  During  the  sessions  a  small  body 
of  recruits  for  the  army,  then  in  Hartford, 
were  paraded  in  a  threatening  manner  by 
the  officer  in  command.  The  proceedings  re- 
sulted in  the  adoption  of  a  report  and  the 
passage  of  resolutions  recommending  amend- 
ments to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  Among  the  recommendations  was 
one  proposing  that  representative  and  direct 


Hartford  531 

taxation  should  be  apportioned  according  to 
the  respective  numbers  of  free  persons  in  the 
States,  excluding  slaves  and  Indians.  This 
document  was  immediately  published,  and 
was  read  with  great  eagerness.  Those  who 
expected  to  discover  sentiments  of  a  seditious 
and  treasonable  nature  were  disappointed. 
The  report  expressed  an  ardent  attachment  to 
the  integrity  of  the  republic,  and  its  sentiments 
were  liberal  and  patriotic.  A  short  time  after 
the  publication  of  this  document  the  news  of 
the  declaration  of  peace  was  received.  The 
people,  without  waiting  to  hear  the  provisions 
of  the  treaty,  showed  their  joy  by  bonfires  and 
illuminations,  —  a  striking  commentary  upon 
the  character  of  the  war  and  the  general  feel- 
ine  about  it.  The  war  beino^  over,  the  work 
of  the  Hartford  Convention  was  no  longer 
needed,  and  the  jarring  interests  of  the  State 
and  Federal  governments  were  harmonized. 

During  the  last  century  the  chief  business 
of  Hartford  was  the  trade  with  the  West 
Indies.  There  was  also  some  trafficking 
with  Ireland  and  with  Lisbon,  timber  being 
exported  to  the  first  named,  and  fish  to  the 
latter.  From  1750  to  1830,  Hartford  not  only 
imported    goods    from    the  West    Indies,  but 


532  Hartford 

was  also  a  distributing  centre  for  the  surround- 
ing country,  and  for  the  region  that  stretches 
northward  to  the  sources  of  the  Connecticut. 
During  the  first  thirty  years  of  this  century 
the  wharves  on  the  river  bank  were  busthng 
with  traffic  and  Hned  with  vessels,  often  three 
or  four  rows  deep.  Large  warehouses  ex- 
tended along  the  banks  of  the  river,  where 
beef  and  pork  were  packed  for  the  export 
trade,  great  quantities  being  brought  down 
the  river  in  brine,  and  inspected  and  repacked 
here.  The  numerous  scows  and  fiat-boats  in 
which  the  up-river  trade  was  carried  on,  were 
loaded  on  their  return  voyage  with  sugar,  rum, 
molasses,  coffee,  salt  and  other  West  Indian 
commodities.  S.  G.  Goodrich,  in  his  Recollec- 
tions of  a  Lifetime,  describes  the  city  as  a 
centre  of  the  West  India  trade,  and  as  smelling 
of  rum  and  molasses.  The  inland  transpor- 
tation of  goods  was  carried  on  by  lines  of 
freight-wagons  running  to  Westfield,  Granby, 
Monson,  Brimfield,  Norfolk,  Canaan,  and  the 
towns  in  Berkshire  County.  There  were  also 
packet  lines  running  to  Boston,  New  York, 
Albany,  Nantucket,  Baltimore,  Norfolk,  and 
Richmond.  But  the  building  of  the  Boston 
and  Albany,  and  of  the   New  York  and  New 


Hartford  533 

Haven  railroads  cut  off  gradually  all  the  in- 
land and  up-river  commerce  from  Hartford, 
and  diverted  trade  into  other  directions.  This 
obliged  the  merchants  of  Hartford  to  turn  their 
energies  to  other  lines  of  business. 

One  of  the  most  successful  of  these,  and 
one  in  which  Hartford  now  holds  a  unique 
position,  is  the  insurance  business.  Nowhere 
else  has  the  business  of  fire  insurance  reached 
such  magnitude  as  in  Hartford.  The  aggre- 
gate capital  of  the  six  fire  insurance  companies 
in  the  city  is  $10,250,000,  which  exceeds  one 
quarter  of  the  capital  of  all  the  fire  companies 
in  the  country.  It  is  supposed  that  the  busi- 
ness began  in  marine  underwriting,  as  Hart- 
ford formerly  had  such  large  shipping  interests 
and  so  many  vessels  concerned  in  trade  with 
the  West  Indies.  An  insurance  office  was 
opened  in  Wethersfield  in  1777  by  Barnabas 
Dean,  presumably  for  shipping.  Fire  insur- 
ance policies  were  issued  in  i  794,  and  in  i  795 
a  company  was  formed  for  the  purpose  of  un- 
derwriting on  "vessels,  stock,  merchandize, 
etc."  In  1 8 10  the  oldest  of  the  present  Hart- 
ford fire  insurance  companies  was  formed, — the 
Hartford,  with  a  capital  of  $150,000.  All  the 
early  insurance  companies  made  the  mistake 


534  Hartford 

of  dividing  profits  in  periods  of  prosperity,  re- 
serving little  or  nothing  for  a  day  of  adversity. 
But  the  Hartford  met  with  a  severe  lesson  in 
December,  1835,  when  the  great  fire  in  New 
York  swept  away  the  capital  of  the  company. 
All  losses  were  paid  in  full,  and  the  confi- 
dence inspired  by  this  policy  increased  the 
business  of  the  company  fivefold.  In  1871 
the  great  Chicago  fire  endangered  the  exist- 
ence of  the  strongest  Hartford  companies,  and 
five  of  them  were  forced  to  discontinue.  But 
the  able  management  of  the  four  that  paid 
their  losses  and  continued  to  do  business  has 
given  the  Hartford  companies  a  good  reputa- 
tion. The  life  insurance  business  was  also 
early  organized  in  Hartford,  which  was  the 
earliest  place,  except  the  already  great  cities  of 
New  York,  Boston,  and  Philadelphia,  to  estab- 
lish this  system  firmly,  and  several  of  the 
Hartford  companies  rank  among  the  leading 
institutions  in  this  business  in  the  country.  In 
Hartford  was  founded  the  first  accident  in- 
surance company  organized  in  America. 

Hartford  possesses  a  number  of  well-known 
educational  and  philanthropic  institutions, — 
Trinity  College  ;  the  Wadsworth  Athenaeum, 
containing  the  Watkinson   Library  of    Refer- 


Hartford  535 

ence,  the  Connecticut  Historical  Society's 
collections,  the  picture  gallery  and  public 
library  ;  the  Theological  Seminary,  the  School 
for  the  Deaf,  the  Retreat  for  the  Insane  ;  all 
founded  in  the  first  half  of  this  century. 

First,  chronologically,  comes  "  The  American 
Asylum  for  the  Education  and  Instruction  of 
Deaf  and  Dumb  Persons,"  the  mother-school 
of  all  similar  institutions  in  this  country.  In 
1887,  when  the  recurring  years  brought  about 
the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  birth  of 
Thomas  Hopkins  Gallaudet,  the  founder  of 
this  school  for  the  deaf,  the  day  was  cele- 
brated by  all  deaf-mutes  throughout  the  United 
States,  and  commemorated  by  public  services 
and  Pfeneral  festivities.  In  a  buildincj  on  Main 
Street,  now  constituting  the  southern  end  of 
the  City  Hotel,  the  American  Asylum  gathered 
its  first  seven  pupils,  April  15,  181 7.  The 
starting-point  of  the  enterprise  was  the  eager 
desire  of  Dr.  Mason  F.  Cogswell  to  secure  an 
education  for  his  daughter,  Alice,  a  deaf-mute, 
whose  infirmity  was  caused  by  an  attack  of 
spotted  fever.  In  18 15,  several  prominent 
gentlemen  in  Hartford  took  steps  towards  the 
organization  of  such  a  school  at  the  instance 
of  Dr.  Cogswell,  and  decided  to  send  the  Rev. 


536  Hartford 

T.  H.  Gallaudet,  then  just  out  of  the  Andover 
Theological  Seminary,  to  Europe,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  acquiring  the  art  of  instructing  deaf- 
mutes.  Accordingly,  Mr.  Gallaudet  proceeded 
to  Paris,  where  he  was  cordially  received  by 
the  Abbe  Sicard,  the  Director  of  the  famous 
Institution  for  Deaf-Mutes,  founded  some 
years  earlier  by  the  Abbe  de  I'Epee.  Here 
every  facility  was  accorded  to  Mr.  Gallaudet, 
and  when  he  was  ready  to  return  to  America, 
one  of  Sicard's  pupils — Laurent  Clerc  by 
name, — offered  his  services  as  an  instructor  in 
the  school  to  be  founded  in  America,  and  as 
he  was  himself  a  deaf-mute  he  was  a  livingf 
demonstration  of  the  fact  that  a  very  high  de- 
gree of  education  was  possible  to  deaf-mutes. 
In  1818,  the  number  of  pupils  having  increased 
to  sixty,  it  appeared  to  the  directors  that  their 
work  was  likely  to  become  national,  and  it 
seemed  proper  to  invoke  the  aid  of  Congress. 
A  petition  was  accordingly  sent  to  Congress, 
and  was  strongly  supported  by  the  Connecti- 
cut members,  by  the  Speaker,  Henry  Clay, 
and  by  many  other  influential  and  philanthropic 
men.  Congress  responded  by  an  appropri- 
ation of  an  entire  township,  comprising  23,000 
acres   of    land.      This    grant    was    judiciously 


Hartford  537 

converted  into  cash  and  invested,  and  the 
income  thus  received  has  enabled  the  insti- 
tution to  receive  pupils  at  about  one  half 
the  actual  cost  of  their  education.  The  build- 
ing now  in  use  was  completed  in  182 1,  Since 
1825  pupils  have  been  received  from  the 
States  of  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire, 
Maine,  Vermont,  and  Rhode  Island,  under 
an  arrangement  made  with  the  official  au- 
thorities in  those  States,  While  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  instructors  have  always  been 
college  graduates,  at  the  same  time  indus- 
trial instruction  has,  since  1823,  been  an  es- 
sential feature  in  the  training,  thus  render- 
ing the  pupils  self-supporting  members  of 
society. 

Another  evidence  of  the  philanthropic  feel- 
ing animating  the  citizens  of  Hartford  about 
the  same  date  as  the  foundation  of  the  Deaf 
and  Dumb  Asylum,  was  the  establishment  in 
1824,  of  the  Connecticut  Retreat  for  the  In- 
sane. At  that  time  there  were  only  two  other 
institutions  in  the  country  for  the  exclusive 
care  of  insane  persons,  and  the  importance  of 
restorative  treatment  was  but  little  under- 
stood. 

Many  citizens  of  Hartford  signed  the  petition 


53^  Hartford 

requesting  the  General  Assembly  to  pass  an 
act  of  incorporation  for  Washington  College, 
and  when  the  news  of  its  passage  was  received, 
May  1 6,  1823,  their  joy  was  manifested  by 
the  liehtinof  of  bonfires  and  the  firine  of  can- 
non.  The  people  of  Hartford  surpassed  all 
others  in  raising  money  for  the  new  insti- 
tution. More  than  three  fourths  of  the  sum 
appropriated  by  the  State,  $50,000,  was  con- 
tributed by  them,  and  their  city  was  therefore 
selected  as  the  seat  of  the  Collesfe.  A  fine 
site  was  secured  on  an  eminence  overlookinof 
the  Little  River,  the  hill  now  crowned  by  the 
beautiful  State  Capitol,  and  in  1825  two  build- 
ings were  ready  for  occupation.  The  College 
was  opened  under  the  presidency  of  the  Rt. 
Rev.  Thomas  C.  Brownell,  Bishop  of  Con- 
necticut, and  at  all  times  since  its  foundation 
the  institution  has  been  administered  by  men  of 
learninor  and  wisdom.  The  name  was  changed 
in  1844  to  Trinity  College.  In  1871,  when  the 
city  of  Hartford  decided  to  offer  to  the  State 
a  site  for  the  new  Capitol,  it  was  proposed  to 
purchase  the  College  campus  for  that  purpose 
and  in  February,  1872,  the  trustees  sold  the 
grounds  to  the  city,  reserving  the  right  to  use 
them  for  five  or  six  years.      In  1873  ^  site  of 


i 


Vk^a 


STATUE   OF    ISRAEL   PUTNAM. 

J.    Q.  A.   WARD.    SCULPTOR. 


539 


54^  Hartford 

some  eighteen  acres  on  the  slope  of  Rocky 
Hill,  commanding  a  beautiful  view  in  every 
direction,  was  purchased  by  the  College. 
Ground  was  broken  on  Commencement  Day, 
1875.  with  impressive  ceremonies,  and  two 
large  buildings  were  ready  for  occupation  in 
1878.  The  erection  of  the  Northam  Gateway, 
in  1 88 1,  unites  the  buildings  and  completes 
the  western  side  of  the  proposed  quadrangle. 
The  lofty  towers  have  added  greatly  to  the 
appearance  of  the  structure.  The  style  of  ar- 
chitecture is  secular  Gothic  of  the  early  French 
type. 

The  buildings  of  the  Theological  Seminary 
on  Broad  Street  attract  attention  by  their  size 
and  dignity.  The  institution  was  established 
in  East  Windsor  in  1833,  and  was  removed  to 
Hartford  in  1865,  occupying  the  old  Wads- 
worth  house  and  other  buildings  on  Prospect 
Street.  In  1879,  the  present  structure  was 
occupied,  and  it  has  since  been  enlarged  by 
the  addition  of  the  Case  Library. 

The  first  great  manufacturing  enterprise  in 
Hartford,  and  still  perhaps  the  best  known 
and  most  important,  is  the  Colt's  Patent  Fire 
Arms  Manufacturing  Company,  established  by 
Colonel  Samuel  Colt  in    1S48.      Colonel   Colt 


Hartford 


541 


planned  his  works  on  a  mag-nihcent  scale,  and 
time  has  proved  the  wisdom  of  his  plans.  To 
pistols,  rifles,  and  shotguns  the  company  has 
added,  from  time  to  time,  the  manufacture  of 
gun  machinery,  Gatling  guns,  printing-presses, 
portable  steam-engines,  and  Colt  automatic 
guns.  Aside  from  the 
output  of  weapons  and 
machinery,  the  Colt 
works  have  been  of 
great  value  as  an  educat- 
ing force  in  applied 
mechanics,  and  they 
have  turned  out  many 
men  who  have  founded 
large  manufacturing 
establishments.  The 
armory  grounds  now  in- 
clude two  memorial 
buildings,  the  Church  of 
the  Good  Shepherd, 
built  in  1868  by  Mrs. 
Colt,  in  memory  of  her 
husband,  and  a  compan- 
ion to  this,  built  in  1896,  a  parish  house,  in 
memory  of  Commodore  Caldwell  H.  Colt, 
a    structure    complete    and    satisfying    in    all 


if 

1 

1 

KENEY    MEMORIAL    TOWER. 


542  Hartford 

its  decorations  and  appointments.  Another 
memorial  structure  in  the  city  is  just  ap- 
proaching completion, — the  Keney  Memorial 
Tower.  In  this,  Hartford  will  possess  an 
architectural  feature  unique  in  American  cities, 
— a  Norman  bell  and  clock  tower,  with  fine 
carvinofs. 

The  Messrs.  Keney  have  left  another  mem- 
orial of  themselves  in  the  Keney  Park,  a  fine 
addition  to  the  Hartford  park  system.  The 
beauty  of  Hartford  and  its  desirability  as  a 
residence  have  both  been  much  increased  by 
the  munificence  of  individual  citizens,  and  the 
wise  policy  of  the  city  government  in  creating 
a  system  of  public  parks.  The  first  of  these, 
Bushnell  Park,  the  city  owes  to  the  wise  fore- 
thought of  Dr.  Horace  Bushnell,  one  of  her 
most  distinguished  citizens.  Laid  out  in  1859, 
it  is,  probably,  after  Central  Park  in  New 
York,  the  oldest  public  city  park  in  the  coun- 
try, and  it  was  obtained  in  the  face  of  much 
opposition  by  a  man  possessed  of  great  intel- 
lect and  foresight — for  whom  it  was  named  in 
1876.  The  building  of  the  Capitol  on  the 
brow  of  the  hill  overlooking  the  Park,  and  the 
construction  of  the  Soldiers'  Memorial  Arch  in 
1886,  have  added  much  to  its  beauty  and  com- 


Hartford 


543 


pleteness.  In  1894,  Hartford  acquired  another 
park  the  gift  of  Col.  Albert  A.  Pope,  the  head 
of  the  Pope  Manufacturing  Company.  This 
park  is  situated  in  the  south  part  of  the  city. 


THE   CAPITOL. 


Very  soon  afterwards,  by  the  will  of  Charles 
M.  Pond,  the  city  became  possessed  of  a  valu- 
able tract  of  land  on  Prospect  Hill,  the  former 
residence  of  Mr.  Pond.  This  he  desired  should 
be  called  Elizabeth  Park  in  memory  of  his 
wife.  Now  the  Pope,  Elizabeth,  Keney,  and 
Riverside  Parks,  the  latter  on  the  north  mead- 


544  Hartford 

ows  and  near  the  city  water-works,  make 
a  boulevard  around  Hartford,  which  will  add 
much  in  the  future  to  the  beauty  of  this  already 
beautiful  city. 

After  the  brilliant  galaxy  of  the  "  Hartford 
Wits "  disappeared,  a  graver  class  of  liter- 
erary  men  took  their  places  :  Noah  Webster, 
with  his  spelling-book  and  dictionary  (he  was 
born  in  Hartford,  West  Division,  Oct,  i6, 
1758);  Samuel  G.  Goodrich  (Peter  Parley); 
Mrs.  Lydia  Huntley  Sigourney,  who  obtained 
the  title  of  "  the  American  Hemans,"  an  almost 
lifelong  resident  of  Hartford,  where  her  first 
volume  of  poems  was  published  in  181 5  ; 
George  Denison  Prentice  and  John  Greenleaf 
Whittier  both  lived  in  Hartford  for  a  time, 
doing  editorial  work,  when  they  were  yet 
young  and  unknown  men  ;  Henry  Barnard, 
LL. D.,  distinguished  for  his  labors  in  the 
cause  of  education,  was  born  in  Hartford  in 
181 1,  and  is  still  enjoying  an  honored  old  age 
in  his  native  city.  But  the  man  of  highest 
genius  in  Hartford's  list  of  authors  during  the 
first  half  of  this  century  was  Horace  Bushnell. 
He  came  to  the  city  in  1833,  as  pastor  of  the 
North  Church,  and  remained  until  his  death, 
in    1876.      His  sermons  and  essays  all    show 


SOLDIERS'    MEMORIAL   ARCH. 


545 


546 


Hartford 


great  imagination  and  beauty  of  style,  as  well 
as  great  power  of  thought.  In  1864,  Mrs. 
Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  who  had  once  before 


c^^^^E*^'^^^^::^ 


lived  in  Hartford  as  a  teacher  in  the  famous 
school  of  her  sister,  Miss  Catharine  Beecher, 
again  took  up  her  residence  in  the  city,  and 
continued  to  live  here  until  her  death,  in  1896. 


DR.    HORACE    BUSHNELU 

FROM  A  CRAYON   DRAWING  BY  S.  W.   R0W8E. 


547 


548  Hartford 

During  this  period  a  number  of  her  later 
works  were  written. 

Of  Hving  authors,  Charles  Dudley  Warner 
and  Samuel  L.  Clemens  (Mark  Twain)  have 
a  world-wide  reputation.  Mr.  Warner  came 
to  Hartford  in  i860,  as  one  of  the  editors  of 
the  Press,  and  subsequently  became  one  of  the 
owners  and  editors  of  the  Coui'-ant,  with  which 
paper  he  is  still  associated.  His  Summer  in 
a  Garden,  which  first  brought  him  into  notice, 
appeared  in  the  columns  of  his  newspaper  in 

1870,  and  since  that  time  he  has  written  many 
■essays,  novels,  and  books  of  travel.  Mr. 
Clemens  was  born  in  Florida,  Missouri,  No- 
vember 30,  1835,  has  lived  in   Hartford  since 

1 87 1,  and  all  his  books  which  have  appeared 
:since  1872  have  been  written  in  our  city, 
■except  his  \-dX&?A.,  Following  the  Equator.  John 
Fiske,  the  historian  and  essayist,  was  born  in 
Hartford  in  1842,  but  he  left  the  city  at  an 
early  age,  and  his  reputation  has  been  won 
elsewhere.  The  same  can  be  said  of  Edmund 
Clarence  Stedman,  the  poet  and  critic,  who 
was  born  in   Hartford  in   1833. 

James  Hammond  Trumbull,  LL. D.,  born 
in  Stonington  in  182 1,  but  almost  a  lifelong 
resident  of  Hartford,  dying  there  in  1897,  was 


Hartford  549 

one  of  the  most  distinouished  philologists  and 
antiquarians  in  the  country,  and  his  great  famil- 
iarity with  the  Indian  tongues  made  him  an 
authority  on  that  subject.  Dr.  Trumbull's 
brother,  Rev.  Henry  Clay  Trumbull,  D.D., 
of  Philadelphia,  since  1875  editor  of  the  Sun- 
day School  Times, 
was  a  resident  of  our 
city  from  the  year 
1851  to  1875,  ^'^d 
during  that  period 
he  published  some 
of  his  religious  and 
biographical  works. 
Two  other  members 
of  the  same  family,  a 
sister  and  daughter 
of  Dr.  J.  H.  Trum- 
bull, Mrs.  Annie 
Trumbull  Slosson,  J-  hammond  trumbull,  ll.d. 
and  Miss  Annie  Eliot  Trumbull,  have  dis- 
tinguished themselves  in  literature,  by  their 
novels  and  short  stories,  some  being  character 
studies  of  New  England  life.  In  this  line  also 
another  Hartford  writer  excelled,  Mrs.  Rose 
Terry  Cooke,  who  was  born  in  Hartford  in 
1827,   and   died   in    Pittsfield,   Mass.,   in   1892. 


550  Hartford 

She  contributed  many  graphic  stories  of  rural 
New  England  life  to  the  pages  of  the  Atlantic 
Monthly,  Harpers,  and  other  magazines,  which 
stories  were  afterwards  collected  and  pub- 
lished in  book  form.  Richard  Burton,  born 
in  Hartford  in  1858,  recently  appointed  Pro- 
fessor of  Enoflish  Literature  in  the  Univer- 
sity  of  Minnesota,  has  already  made  a  name 
among  the  younger  men  as  a  poet  and  critic. 
Frederick  Law  Olmsted,  born  in  Hartford, 
November  10,  1822,  now  a  resident  of  Brook- 
line,  Mass.,  is  well  known  as  one  of  the  fore- 
most landscape-gardeners  in  this  country,  and  he 
has  also  made  valuable  contributions  to  the 
literature  of  travel  and  horticulture.  Many 
other  persons,  either  natives  or  residents  of 
Hartford,  have  won  renown  in  various  fields 
of  authorship.  In  the  art  world,  Hartford 
claims  Frederick  E.  Church  and  William  Ged- 
ney  Bunce,  the  painters,  E.  S.  Bartholomew, 
the  sculptor,  and  William  Gillette,  the  actor 
and  playwright,  all  natives  of  the  city. 

Hartford  citizens  have  borne  their  part  in 
the  councils  of  the  nation.  Gideon  Welles 
was  Secretary  of  the  Navy  under  President 
Lincoln  during  the  Civil  War,  and  until  1869. 
Isaac  Toucey  held  the  same  office  under  Presi- 


Hartford  551 

dent  Buchanan.  Hon.  John  M.  Niles  was  Post- 
master-General in  1840,  under  Van  Buren,  and 
also  Senator  for  a  long  period.  The  Hon.  Mar- 
shall Jewell  was  appointed  by  President  Grant 
United  States  Minister  to  Russia  in  1873,  ^^^ 
in  1874  he  was  recalled  to  enter  the  Cabinet  as 
Postmaster  General.  In  later  years  the  Hon. 
James  Dixon  and  General  J.  R.  Hawley  have 
been  prominent  in  the  United  States  Senate. 

Hartford  has  increased  largely  in  popula- 
tion during  the  last  decade,  and  the  numerous 
trolley  lines  that  have  been  built,  running  like 
the  spokes  of  a  wheel  into  the  surrounding 
country,  have  contributed  much  to  the  pros- 
perity of  the  city.  Many  handsome  residences 
have  been  built,  new  streets  have  been  laid 
out,  and  our  city  appears  to  have  entered 
upon  a  career  that  promises  increased  wealth 
and  success. 


NEW  HAVEN 
"THE   CITY    OF   ELMS" 

By  FREDERICK  HULL  COGSWELL 

THE  main  incidents  in  the  history  of  New 
Haven  have  a  flavor  of  romance.  Even  the 
original  settlement,  usually  a  prosy  affair,  was 
brought  about  by  the  chance  letter  of  a  victori- 
ous soldier.  On  the  26th  of  June,  1637,  a  com- 
pany of  wealthy  English  immigrants  sailed  into 
Boston  harbor,  undecided  as  to  its  final  des- 
tination. It  was  led  and  directed  by  Reverend 
John  Davenport,  a  Non-conformist  clergyman 
of  London,  and  Theophilus  Eaton,  a  retired 
merchant  of  the  same  town,  who  had  once  re- 
presented the  British  crown  at  the  court  of 
Denmark.  The  company  had  thought  to  settle 
near  Boston,  but  a  theological  controversy  that 
threatened  to  envelop  the  whole  jurisdiction 
led  to  a  change  of  plan,  and  for  several  months 
the  party  remained  at  Boston  in  a  state  of 
indecision. 

553 


554  New  Haven 

Meanwhile,  the  Pequod  war  was  raging  along 
the  coast  of  Long  Island  Sound,  and  as  the 
beaten  braves  were  being  driven  westward 
toward  the  valley  of  the  Hudson,  their  pursu- 
ers came  upon  a  spot  of  surprising  beauty. 
Its  charms  detained  them  long  enough  to  note 
its  details.  There  was  a  broad  wooded  plain 
skirted  with  green  and  fertile  meadows,  bounded 
on  either  side  by  a  gently  flowing  river,  and 
guarded  on  the  north  by  giant  cliffs.  Here  and 
there  the  smoke  of  Indian  camp-fires  curled 
gracefully  above  the  tree-tops,  and  bark-canoes 
darted  swiftly  about  in  the  placid  waters  of  the 
bay.  The  place  was  occupied  by  friendly  na- 
tives, anxious  for  protection  against  their  tribal 
enemies.  Game  abounded  in  the  forests  ;  the 
streams  were  alive  with  fish  ;  and  the  piles  of 
oyster-shells  along  the  shore  told  of  bivalvian 
riches  beneath  the  glistening  waves.  The 
English  officers,  elated  with  victory  and  de- 
lighted with  the  newly  discovered  land,  wrote 
enthusiastic  descriptions  to  their  friends  at  Bos- 
ton. As  one  with  an  eye  to  the  material  ad- 
vantages expressed  it :  "  It  hath  a  fair  river, 
fit  for  harboring  of  ships,  and  abounds  with 
rich  and  goodly  meadows." 

The  immigrants  at  once  determined  to  in= 


TEMPLE  STREET. 


555 


55^  New  Haven 

vestigate,  and  Eaton,  taking  a  small  vessel, 
sailed  down  the  coast  and  into  the  harbor  of 
Quinnipiac.  He  and  his  companions  lost  no 
time  in  deciding  as  to  their  future  home.  He 
left  seven  men  to  spend  the  winter  with  the 
Indians,  and  returned  to  Boston.  Those  who 
remained  lived  in  a  hut  near  the  shore,  and  be- 
fore spring  came,  one  of  them  died.  His  name 
was  Beecher,  and  he  has  been  claimed  as  the 
ancestor  of  the  Beecher  family  in  this  country. 
His  wife  and  children  came  with  the  main 
party  when  the  cold  weather  had  passed.  A 
few  rods  to  the  west  of  this  first  hut  stood,  in 
after  years,  the  forge  of  Lyman  Beecher's 
father. 

It  is  uncertain  just  what  name  the  Indians 
applied  to  the  town.  The  early  spelling  varied 
so  much  that  nearly  forty  different  combina- 
tions of  letters  have  come  down  to  us,  as  re- 
presenting it.  It  is  apparent  that  the  settlers 
were  unable  to  acquire  the  aboriginal  pronun- 
ciation, or  to  correctly  express  it  in  English. 
They  finally  adopted  "  Quinnipiac "  as  being 
more  euphonious  than  "  Ouilillioak  "  "  Ouillipi- 
age  "  and  "  Oueenapiok." 

It  was  with  feelings  not  easily  described  that 
the    newcomers    sailed    into     the    harbor    and 


New  Haven 


557 


looked  upon  their  future  home.  There  they 
were  to  spend  the  rest  of  their  Hves,  there  they 
would  be  laid  to  rest  when  their  earthly  labors 
were  done,  and  there  would  dwell  their  poster- 
ity, to  represent  the  principles  for  which  they 
had  sought  a  new 
world.  In  the  land 
of  their  birth  they 
could  not  worship  as 
they  chose.  Unless 
they  followed  the  rule 
set  down  by  others, 
they  were  not  only 
called  heretics  and 
emissaries  of  the 
devil,  but  were  im- 
prisoned and  fined, 
and  subjected  to 
great  personal  indignity.  They  felt  that  they 
were  being  deprived  of  a  natural  right,  and 
despairing  of  better  times  at  home,  came  to 
find  a  place  where  they  could  enjoy  uninter- 
rupted the  free  exercise  of  conscience. 

They  were  obliged  for  a  time  to  live  on  the 
boat  in  which  the  voyage  had  been  made.  The 
first  Sunday  morning  all  came  ashore  to  wor- 
ship under  the  branches  of  an  oak-tree  which 


JOHN   DAVENPORT. 

FROM  A  PORTRAIT  IN   POSSESSION  OF 
YALE  COLLEGE. 


55^  New  Haven 

stood  on  the  bank  of  a  small  stream  that 
emptied  into  the  bay.  It  was  in  the  month  of 
April,  1638,  and  the  leaves  were  not  far  forth, 
but  under  that  canopy  the  first  sermon  ever 
heard  in  that  region  was  preached.  This 
famous  tree  stood  for  more  than  a  hundred 
years  after,  and  when  it  fell  a  tablet  was  placed 
on  a  near-by  building  to  show  succeeding  gen- 
erations where  the  forefathers  first  met  for 
public  worship. 

A  compact  was  made  with  the  Indians,  and 
the  town  was  laid  out  by  John  Brockett,  a 
civil  engineer,  whose  love  of  a  Puritan  maiden 
had  led  him  to  abandon  brilliant  prospects  of 
preferment  and  cross  the  seas.  First,  a  large 
tract  was  apportioned  for  a  market-place,  then 
the  streets  were  plotted  in  regular  squares  sur- 
rounding it.  The  dwellings  ranged  from  mere 
huts  to  mansions  of  grand  proportions.  Eat- 
on's house  contained  nineteen  fireplaces,  and 
was  one  of  the  few  houses  in  the  country  where 
sufficient  books  were  found  to  form  a  library. 

Romance  soon  gave  place  to  tragedy.  An 
Enoflishman  was  found  murdered  in  the  neieh- 
boring  woods,  and  an  Indian  so  near  as  to 
invite  suspicion.  He  was  arrested  and  brought 
to  the  market-place.     No  laws  had  been  framed, 


New  Haven  559 

but  an  agreement  had  been  made  soon  after 
landing,  that  all  disputes  should  be  settled 
according  to  Scripture.  An  inquiry  estab- 
lished the  Indian's  guilt,  but  there  was  doubt 
as  to  the  Scriptural  text  to  apply.  The  Old 
Testament  rule,  "  Whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood, 
by  man  shall  his  blood  be  shed,"  made  the 
outlook  gloomy  for  the  prisoner,  while  he  saw 
hope  in  the  more  recent  dispensation,  "  Go 
and  sin  no  more."  The  Puritan  forefathers 
leaned  to  the  conservative  view  of  the  case, 
laid  the  Indian  over  a  log,  chopped  off  his 
head,  and  "pitched  it  upon  a  pole  in  the 
market-place." 

The  first  public  building  to  be  erected,  as 
might  have  been  expected,  was  a  meeting- 
house. This  was  built  near  the  centre  of  the 
market-place,  and  the  present  edifice  stands 
to-day  on  nearly  the  same  spot.  The  meeting- 
house was  not  merely  a  place  for  public  wor- 
ship, but  town-hall,  voting-booth,  court-room 
and  forum  as  well.  In  summer  it  was  a  pleas- 
ant place  in  which  to  sit,  with  bird-songs  and 
odor-laden  breezes  floating  in  through  the  open 
windows,  and  the  long-drawn,  monotonous 
drone  of  the  parson's  voice  lulling  to  dreamy 
drowsiness.      But  in  winter,  with  the  mercury 


560  New  Haven 

twenty  degrees  below  zero  ;  with  tingling  ears 
and  aching  nose  ;  with  shivering  frames  and  feet 
like  cakes  of  ice,  and  every  man's  breath  show- 
ing white  on  the  frosty  air,  hell-fire  seemed 
less  terrible  than  the  preacher  would  have  it 
appear. 

There  were  means,  however,  of  getting  peri- 
odically thawed.  Those  who  lived  in  town 
could  repair  to  their  homes  at  the  intermis- 
sion, while  the  farmers  sought  their  "  sab- 
bada-housen "  (Sabbath-day  houses).  These 
were  small  huts,  each  containing  a  chimney 
and  rude  fireplace,  and  were  grouped  irregu- 
larly about  the  meeting-house.  Here  the 
stiffened  limbs  were  rubbed  and  toasted,  and 
the  creature  comforts  of  pies  and  cakes  and 
home-brewed  ale  were  enjoyed.  Stern  times 
were  those,  and  many  a  mother  saw  her  ten- 
der child  laid  away  in  the  little  burying-ground, 
chilled  to  death  by  the  bitter  cold  of  the  meet- 
ing-house. 

While  the  hearts  of  these  early  Puritans 
beat  warmly,  their  rigid  views  of  life  and  duty 
sometimes  led  to  acts  of  great  severity.  Pub- 
lic whipping  was  resorted  to,  not  only  as  a 
punishment  supposed  to  be  fit  for  the  culprit, 
but  as  a  warning  and  a  deterrent.      It  is  hard 


ROGER  SHERMAN. 
561  PHOTOGRAPHED  FROM  STATUE  ON  THE  EAST  FRONT  OF  THE   CAPITOL  AT  HARTFORD. 


562  New  Haven 

to  imagine  a  father  handing  a  child  over  to 
the  courts  for  pubHc  humihation,  yet  Richard 
Malbon,  a  magistrate,  sat  at  the  trial  of  his 
daughter  Martha,  and  condemned  her  to  be 
flogged  at  the  whipping-post.  The  shameful 
performance  took  place  on  the  northwest  corner 
of  the  market-place,  close  by  the  schoolhouse, 
so  that  the  youthful  mind  need  not  fail  to 
understand  that  the  way  of  the  transgressor 
was  hard. 

The  "  Witch  Trial  "  created  some  excite- 
ment in  the  early  days.  Elizabeth  Godman 
was  the  town  scold,  and  kept  her  neighbors 
in  a  state  of  perpetual  worry.  Her  chief 
delight  was  in  creating  and  perpetuating  feuds. 
She  had  been  warned  by  the  magistrates  that 
her  way  of  life  was  objectionable  and  might 
lead  to  trouble.  One  day,  in  spite  of  the  judi- 
cial warning,  she  called  at  Mistress  Hooke's 
and  asked  for  home-brewed  beer.  A  mug  was 
given  her,  but  she  used  only  part  of  it.  The 
next  day  the  whole  barrel  of  "  beare "  was 
found  to  be  sour.  Here  were  symptoms  of 
witchcraft !  Soon  after  one  of  Goody  Thorpe's 
chickens  died,  and  when  they  opened  it  they 
found  its  gizzard  full  of  water  and  worms  ! 
Suspicion  began  to    turn  to   certainty.      This 


New  Haven  563 

led  to  a  quarrel  between  Elizabeth  Godman 
and  Mistress  Bishop,  and  in  consequence  the 
latter's  baby  was  born  dead.  To  cap  the 
climax,  Mr.  Nash's  boy  had  a  fit  of  sickness 
that  puzzled  the  doctors,  and  it  was  thought 
best,  in  order  to  prevent  further  calamities,  to 
have  Elizabeth  Godman  arrested  and  tried  as 
a  witch.  In  good  old  Salem  her  chances  of 
escape  might  have  been  narrow  ;  but  while  her 
judges  believed  in  witchcraft  and  were  ready 
to  punish  it  by  death,  she  was  triumphantly 
acquitted,  and  wagged  her  spiteful  tongue  un- 
molested the  rest  of  her  life. 

The  most  dramatic  event  in  the  early  history 
of  the  colony  was  the  coming  of  the  regicides. 
Major-Generals  Edward  Whalley  and  William 
GofTe,  distinguished  leaders  in  the  parliament- 
ary army,  had  sat  on  the  commission  that  had 
condemned  Charles  I.  to  the  block.  Both  men 
stood  close  to  Cromwell  during  the  period  of 
the  protectorate,  Whalley  being  Cromwell's 
cousin,  and  Goffe  a  son-in-law  of  Whalley. 
Both  acted  as  shire  governors  and  were  close 
personal  advisers  of  the  Lord  Protector.  At 
Cromwell's  death  Goffe  was  considered  a  prob- 
able successor,  but  the  monarchy  was  restored 
in  the  person  of  Charles  II.,  and  all  who  had 


564  New  Haven 

been  connected  with  the  trial  and  execution  of 
the  late  king  were  obliged  to  flee  for  their 
lives.  Whalley  and  Goffe  sailed  for  Boston 
and  for  a  time  lived  there  openly,  but  a  royal 
warrant  for  their  arrest  finally  came,  and  Gov- 
ernor Endicott  issued  orders  for  their  appre- 
hension. The  only  men  in  the  country  to 
whom  they  could  look  for  protection  were  Mr. 
Davenport,  a  known  sympathizer  and  a  friend 
of  Cromwell,  and  William  Jones,  whose  father 
had  been  taken  as  a  regicide  and  executed  in 
London.  The  hunted  men  accordingly  started 
for  New  Haven  on  horseback,  arriving  on  the 
7th  of  March,  1661.  They  went  to  the  house 
of  Mr.  Davenport  and  for  the  next  three  weeks 
were  concealed  there,  or  across  the  street  by 
William  Jones.  On  the  27th,  the  news  of  a 
proclamation  for  their  arrest  reached  New 
Haven,  and  the  two  generals  proposed  some 
military  tactics  to  throw  possible  pursuers  off 
the  scent.  They  accordingly  appeared  upon 
the  street  the  next  morning  as  travellers  just 
arrived  from  the  north,  let  their  identity  be 
known,  made  various  inquiries  concerning  the 
town,  and  asked  the  way  to  Manhattan.  They 
departed  to  the  southward  and  disappeared  ; 
but   on  arrivinor  at   Milford,   ten   miles  below, 


New  Haven  565 

they  entered  the  woods  and  returned  quietly 
to  the  house  of  Mr.  Davenport.  Two  weeks 
later,  Kellond  and  Kirke,  two  officers  commis- 
sioned by  Governor  Endicott,  arrived  with  a 
warrant  and  called  upon  Deputy-Governor 
Leete  at  Guilford.  There  were  several  men 
in  the  Governor's  office  when  the  officers  pre- 
sented their  credentials.  The  Governor  took 
the  papers  and  began  to  read  aloud,  letting 
out  the  whole  secret,  as  he  doubtless  intended, 
so  that  the  generals  might  receive  warning  and 
escape.  The  officers  soon  found  that  both  the 
magistrates  and  the  people  were  inclined  to 
shield  the  regicides,  but  made  desperate  efforts 
to  effect  a  capture.  The  fugitives,  however, 
assisted  by  Davenport,  Jones  and  others, 
eluded  them  at  every  point.  Finally,  after 
exhausting  their  patience  and  ingenuity,  the 
officers  gave  up  the  chase  and  returned  to 
Massachusetts  ;  but  offered  large  rewards  for 
the  apprehension  of  the  regicides.  These  re- 
wards stimulated  the  ambition  of  certain  per- 
sons, and  it  was  even  more  dangerous  for  the 
hunted  men  to  appear  in  public,  or  to  let  their 
hiding-place  be  known.  Those  who  were  be- 
friending them  were  in  equal  danger  ;  for  by 
aiding  and   comforting   "traitors"    they    were 


5^6  New  Haven 

liable  to  arrest  and  execution  for  the  crime  of 
high  treason. 

The  regicides  remained  in  the  colony  about 
two  years,  hiding  in  the  houses  of  their  friends  ; 
in  an  old  mill  just  outside  the  boundaries  of 
the  town  ;  in  a  cave  on  the  side  of  West  Rock ; 
in  a  pile  of  rocks  on  the  top  ;  in  a  Milford  cel- 
lar ;  and  other  places  of  more  or  less  doubtful 
identity.  The  best  known  of  these  places  is 
the  pile  of  boulders  on  the  extreme  top  of 
West  Rock  known  as  "  Judges  Cave."  It  is 
visited  every  year  by  thousands  of  people,  who 
regard  it  as  a  connecting  link  between  New 
Haven  and  the  great  tragedy  of  English  his- 
tory. 

About  the  year  1670  a  mysterious  gentle- 
man about  sixty  years  old,  calling  himself 
"James  Davids,"  came  to  New  Haven  with 
the  evident  intention  of  spending  the  rest 
of  his  days  in  the  town.  He  appeared  to  be 
wealthy,  but  no  one  knew  anything  of  his  past. 
He  claimed  to  be  a  retired  merchant.  It  is  said 
that  one  Sunday  while  Sir  Edmund  Andros 
was  attending  church  on  the  Green,  he  noticed 
a  tall,  soldierly-looking  man  in  a  neighboring 
pew,  and  inquired  who  he  was.  "  He  is  a 
merchant  residing  here,"   was  the   reply.      "  I 


New  Haven 


567 


know  he  is  not  a  merchant,"  said  Sir  Edmund  ; 
"  he  has  filled  a  more  responsible  position  than 
that  ! "  Governor  Andros  had  not  time  to 
follow  up  his  suspicions,  but  after  the  mysteri- 


JUDGES  CAVE. 


ous  stranger's  death,  twenty  years  later,  it  came 
to  be  known  that  he  was  Colonel  John  Dixwell, 
another  regicide,  who  had  fled  from  England 
to   escape   execution.     A  century  and  a  half 


568  New  Haven 

afterwards,  his  descendants  erected  a  monu- 
ment to  his  memory  behind  Center  Church  on 
the  Green,  where  it  is  still  an  object  of  inter- 
est to  visitors. 

New  Haven  received  her  baptism  of  fire 
during  the  Revolution  in  the  form  of  an  inva- 
sion by  a  detachment  of  the  British  army,  July 
5,  1779.  The  apparent  purpose  of  this  act 
was  to  cause  Washington  to  weaken  his  force 
at  West  Point  in  order  to  defend  the  Con- 
necticut coast.  Washington  attacked  Stony 
Point  as  a  counter-irritant,  but  this  did  not 
affect  the  British  until  after  they  were  through 
with  New  Haven,  which  was  then  a  village  of 
about  eighteen  hundred  inhabitants.  The 
evening  previous  (Sunday),  arrangements  had 
been  mace  for  a  celebration  of  the  third  anni- 
versary of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
but  at  ten  o'clock  the  town  was  startled 
by  the  boom  of  a  signal-gun  in  the  harbor. 
All  was  confusion  durinor  the  ni^rht,  and  about 
five  o'clock  Monday  morning  President  Stiles, 
from  the  steeple  of  the  college  chapel,  saw, 
by  the  aid  of  a  spy-glass,  the  British  fleet 
embarking  at  West  Haven.  A  company  of 
students  formed  and  marched  to  hinder  the 
invaders,  while  the  beacon-fires  that  had  been 


New  Haven  569 

lighted  during  the  night  on  the  neighboring 
hilltops  brought  bodies  of  armed  patriots  from 
the  surrounding  towns.  In  spite  of  deter- 
mined opposition,  the  enemy,  led  by  General 
Garth,  entered  the  town  at  noon  and  pro- 
ceeded to  plunder  and  destroy.  A  pitched 
battle  was  fought  on  the  northwest  corner  of 
Broadway,  but  the  defenders  were  overpow- 
ered by  superior  numbers.  The  intention  of 
the  enemy  was  to  burn  the  town,  but  it  was 
found  that  this  could  not  be  done  without  en- 
dangering the  property  of  the  numerous  Tories. 
An  equal  number  of  troops  (1500)  landed  at 
Lighthouse  Point  and  approached  the  town 
from  the  east,  the  intention  being  to  crush  all 
opposition  by  a  junction  of  the  two  armies, 
while  Sir  George  Collier  was  to  bombard  the 
town  from  his  war-ships  in  the  harbor.  It 
having  been  decided  not  to  apply  the  torch, 
those  who  had  entered  from  the  west  slept  on 
the  Green  during  the  night,  and  toward  morn- 
ine  embarked  on  the  boats  at  the  wharf,  after 
burning  much  shipping.  The  eastern  division, 
under  General  Tryon,  captured  Rock  Fort 
(afterwards  named  Fort  Hale),  but  were  unable 
to  enter  the  town.  The  next  day  they  found 
the  patriots  collecting  in   such    numbers  that 


57°  New  Haven 

they  decided  to  withdraw  and  bestow  their 
attentions  upon  the  httle  town  of  Fairfield, 
which  they  burned. 

A  house  still  standing  on  the  north  side  of 
the  Green  was  used  by  the  British  as  a  hos- 
pital. Under  a  tree  in  front,  Whitefield  once 
preached  to  the  multitude,  and  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards used  to  court  the  daughter  of  the  house. 

Colonel  Aaron  Burr,  then  twenty-three 
years  old,  took  an  active  part  in  defending 
the  town. 

Out  on  the  Allingtown  heights,  to  the 
southwest  of  the  town,  stands  a  monument  to 
the  memory  of  Adjutant-General  Campbell  of 
the  British  army.  This  officer  showed  such 
a  noble  spirit  of  humanity  in  the  discharge  of 
a  disagreeable  duty,  protecting  the  helpless 
and  preventing  needless  destruction,  that  the 
citizens  of  New  Haven  erected  this  stone  to 
perpetuate  his  virtues.  While  on  an  errand 
of  mercy  he  was  shot  by  a  young  man,  and 
on  his  monument  are  inscribed  the  words  : 

"Blessed  are  the  Merciful." 

The  Dark  Day,  immortalized  by  Whittier, 
was  the  19th  of  May,  1780.  The  Legislature 
was  in  session  in  the  old  State  House  on  the 


New  Haven 


5/1 


Green  when  a  sudden  darkness  fell.  Many 
believed  the  Judgment  Day  was  at  hand.  In 
the  midst  of  the  excitement  a  motion  was 
made  to  adjourn,  when  Colonel  Abraham  Dav- 


A   HUMANE    ENEMY. 


enport,  great-grandson  of  John  Davenport,  rose 
and  said  :  "  I  am  against  an  adjournment.  The 
Day  of  Judgment  is  either  approaching,  or  it  is 


572  New  Haven 

not.  If  it  is  not,  there  is  no  cause  for  adjourn- 
ment ;  if  it  is,  I  choose  to  be  found  doing  my 
duty.  I  wish,  therefore,  that  the  candles  may 
be  brought,  and  we  proceed  to  business." 

"  And  there  he  stands  in  memory  this  day, 
Erect,  self-poised,  a  rugged  face,  half  seen 
Against  the  background  of  unnatural  dark, 
A  witness  to  the  ages  as  they  pass. 
That  simple  duty  hath  no  place  for  fear." 

The  foundation  of  Yale,  the  "  Mother  of 
Colleges,"  dates  back  to  the  colonial  period, 
and  was  due  to  the  foresight  of  John  Daven- 
port. Within  ten  years  of  the  settlement  of 
the  town,  a  parcel  of  land  was  set  aside  and 
known  as  "college  land,"  and  as  early  as  1654 
the  records  of  the  General  Court  show  "that 
there  was  some  notion  againe  on  foote  con- 
cerning the  setting  vp  of  a  Colledg  here  at 
Newhaven,  Wch,  if  attayned,  will  in  all  likely- 
hood  prove  verey  beneficiall  to  this  place." 
In  spite  of  Davenport's  efforts,  the  project 
was  not  carried  out  during  his  lifetime,  but  in 
1664,  the  Hopkins  Grammar  School,  named  in 
honor  of  Governor  Hopkins,  was  organized  as 
a  collegiate  school.  The  work  of  this  school 
being  chiefly  of  a  preparatory  nature,  ten  Con- 
gregational ministers  organized  a  society  for 


PHELPS  HALL. 


57j 


574  New  Haven 

the  conducting  of  a  college,  and,  in  i  700,  this 
was  chartered  as  "  A  Collegiate  School  in  his 
Majesty's  Colony  of  Connecticut."  The  first 
rector,  or  president,  was  Reverend  Abraham 
Pierson  of  Killingworth,  and  the  first  student 
was  Jacob  Hemingway.  For  a  time  the  col- 
lege was  settled  at  Saybrook,  but  in  1716  it 
was  removed  to  New  Haven.  Two  years  later 
the  name  Yale  College  was  adopted  in  honor 
of  Elihu  Yale,  at  that  time  its  largest  bene- 
factor. 

The  college  library  had  a  unique  origin.  In 
I  700,  the  ten  ministers  forming  the  society  met 
at  Branford,  and  each  donated  a  few  volumes, 
saying  as  he  laid  them  down  :  "  I  give  these 
books  for  the  founding  of  a  college  in  this 
colony."  Forty  books  w^ere  given,  forming 
the  nucleus  of  the  great   University  Library. 

The  first  public  commencement  occurred  in 
1 718,  the  first  building  having  been  erected 
the  year  previous.  For  nearly  a  century  and 
a  half  the  college  had  to  endure  a  hard  strug- 
gle for  existence,  but  at  the  present  day,  owing 
to  the  donations  of  its  graduates  and  friends, 
it  ranks  as  one  of  the  richest  colleges  in  the 
country,  and  possesses  some  of  the  finest  and 
best-equipped   buildings  in   the  world.      Van- 


New  Haven  575 

derbilt  Hall,  given  by  Cornelius  Vanderbilt ; 
Phelps  Hall,  in  honor  of  William  Walter  Phelps; 
and  Osborn  Hall,  in  memory  of  Charles  J. 
Osborn,  are  notable  illustrations  of  combined 
utility  and  art.  V^anderbilt  Hall  is  not  only 
the  costliest  but  the  most  complete  college 
dormitory  in  America. 

The  rare  opportunities  now  offered  at  Yale 
for  a  wide  range  of  study  and  original  investi- 
gation are  too  well  understood  to  need  men- 
tion. In  1887,  it  was  resolved  that  the  college 
had,  in  view  of  the  establishment  of  the  various 
departments  comprised  in  a  university,  attained 
to  that  dignity  ;  and  since  that  time  it  has  been 
known  as  Yale  University, 

The  Theological  Department  may  be  said  to 
have  existed  from  the  beginning,  theology  hav- 
ing been  one  of  the  chief  studies  for  a  hundred 
years.  It  has  existed  as  a  separate  department 
since  1822,  and  the  Law  Department  was 
established  the  same  year.  The  Medical  De- 
partment was  organized  in  181 2.  The  Sci- 
entific Department  originated  in  1846  in  a 
professorship  in  agricultural  chemistr)-  and  an- 
other in  analytical  chemistry,  and  since  1859 
has  occupied  separate  buildings  as  a  distinct 
department. 


57^  New  Haven 

Yale  has  always  been  progressive  in  respect 
to  the  Fine  Arts.  On  receiving  the  collection 
of  Colonel  Trumbull,  embracing  many  pictures 
of  scenes  and  participators  in  the  Revolution- 
ary War,  a  building  was  erected  for  their  ex- 
hibition on  the  campus.  Lecture  courses  were 
given  and  interest  so  far  developed  that  later  a 
larore  and  beautiful  building-  was  erected  for 
the  purposes  of  an  art  school,  which  has  at- 
tained great  success. 

Yale  shows  that  she  well  deserves  her  reputa- 
tion by  more  than  doubling  the  number  of  her 
students  within  twenty  years.  The  present  at- 
tendance is  upwards  of  twenty-five  hundred, 
drawn  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  The  only  aris- 
tocracy at  Yale  is  that  of  brains  and  character, 
and  it  is  a  sienificant  comment  on  this  state  of 
affairs  to  note  that  the  sons  of  millionaires  fre- 
quently do  without  the  luxuries  to  which  they 
are  accustomed,  to  avoid  being  classed  merely 
as  rich  men's  sons.  The  Yale  spirit  recognizes 
manliness  and  industry  as  paramount  qualities, 
and  none  stands  higher  among  his  fellows  than 
the  poor  boy  who  courageously  works  his  way 
through  college,  overcoming  the  obstacles  that 
lie  in  his  way,  and  maintaining  an  honorable 
rank  in  his  class. 


578  New  Haven 

New  Haven  has  sought  to  preserve  memo- 
ries and  mementoes  of  her  historic  existence, 
and  the  Historical  Society  building-,  at  the  foot 
of  Hillhouse  Avenue,  never  fails  to  quicken  the 
pulses  of  the  antiquary.  Here  he  finds  one  of 
Benjamin  Franklin's  Leyden  jars  ;  Benedict  Ar- 
nold's badly  punctuated  sign,  his  account-book, 
medicine  chest,  mortar  and  pestle  ;  the  table  on 
which  Noah  Webster  wrote  the  Dictionary  ;  a 
silver  spoon  that  once  belonged  to  Commodore 
Isaac  Hull  (said  to  have  been  in  his  mouth 
when  he  was  born)  ;  and  an  almost  endless 
collection  of  relics,  rare  portraits  and  books. 

Of  famous  houses,  many  are  still  standing : 
two  of  Benedict  Arnold's ;  the  dwelling  of  Roger 
Sherman,  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, the  city's  first  mayor  and  a  United 
States  Senator  ;  the  Trowbridge  house,  built 
in  1642  by  an  original  settler;  the  Noah  Web- 
ster house  and  others  of  less  interest.  One  of 
the  "  famous  spots"  is  the  northwest  corner  of 
Union  and  Fair  Streets,  where  once  stood  the 
house  of  Isaac  Allerton,  a  Pilgrim  of  the  May- 
flower. A  tablet  has  been  placed  on  the  pre- 
sent building  bearing  the  following  inscription  : 

"  Isaac  Allerton,  a  Pilgrim  of  the  Alayflower,  and 

the  Father  of  New  England  Commerce,  lived 

on  this  Ground  from  1646  till  1659." 


580  New  Haven 

Across  the  way,  on  the  southeast  corner, 
stands  an  old  house  bearing  the  announcement 
that  this  was  the  birthplace  of  Andrew  Hull 
Foote,  Rear  Admiral  of  the  United  States 
Navy. 

Center  Church,  near  the  centre  of  the  Green 
on  Temple  Street,  stands  over  what  was  form- 
erly a  portion  of  the  original  burying-ground, 
and  but  a  few  feet  from  the  site  of  the  first 
meeting-house.  From  its  historic  associations 
it  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  churches  in 
the  country.  Over  the  principal  entrance  are 
these  inscriptions  : 

QUINNIPIAC  CHOSEN  FOR  SETTLEMENT,  A.D.   1637. 


THE     WILDERNESS     AND     THE     SOLITARY      PLACE 
SHALL  BE  MADE  GLAD  FOR  THEM. 


O  GOD  OF  HOSTS  LOOK   DOWN  FROM   HEAVEN  AND 
BEHOLD  AND  VISIT  THIS  VINE. 


A.D.  1638,  A  COMPANY  OF  ENGLISH  CHRISTIANS  LED  BY  JOHN  DAVEN- 
PORT AND  THEOPHILUS  EATON  WERE  THE  FOUNDERS  OF  THIS 
CITY.       HERE  THEIR   EARLIEST  HOUSE  OF  WORSHIP  WAS 
BUILT  A.D.    1639. 


THE  FIRST  CHURCH  BEGINNING  WITH  WORSHIP  IN  THE  OPEN  AIR 
APRIL  15  (O.  S.),  WAS  THE  BEGINNING  OF  NEW  HAVEN,  AND  WAS  OR- 
.GANIZED  AUG.  22  (O.  S.),  1639.  THIS  HOUSE  WAS  DEDICATED  TO 
•THE  WORSHIP  OF  GOD  IN  CHRIST   DEC.   27,   1814. 


^jVMt^ 


581 


582  New  Haven 

Dr.  Leonard  Bacon  was  for  many  years  pas- 
tor of  this  church.  Underneath  is  a  crypt  con- 
taining the  remains  and  tombstones  of  many 
of  the  Puritan  fathers  and  their  famihes  ;  and 
here  hes  the  body  of  Abigail  Pierson,  sister  of 
the  first  president  of  Yale,  and  wife  of  John 
Davenport,  Jr. 

While  around  and  beneath  Center  Church 
"  the  rude  forefathers  of  the  hamlet  sleep,"  the 
oldest  cemetery  now  existing  is  that  on  Grove 
Street.  Many  distinguished  sons  of  New  Ha- 
ven are  buried  there,  among  them  Rear-Ad- 
miral Andrew  H.  Foote,  General  Amos  B. 
Eaton,  Admiral  Francis  H.  Gregory,  General 
Alfred  H.  Terry,  Noah  Webster,  Lyman 
Beecher,  Benjamin  Silliman,  Theodore  Win- 
throp,  Jedediah  Morse  (father  of  American 
geography),  the  elder  President  Dwight  and 
President  Day,  Colonel  David  Humphreys, 
aide  on  the  staff  of  General  Washington,  Eli 
Whitney,  inventor  of  the  cotton-gin,  Jehudi 
Ashmun,  first  colonial  agent  at  Liberia,  Gov- 
ernors Ingersoll,  Baldwin,  Edwards,  and  many 
others  eminent  in  business  and  professional 
life. 

Tottering  old  men  sometimes  point  to  places 
where  Nathan  Hale  made  his  great  leap,  where 


583 


584  New  Haven 

John  C.  Calhoun  got  his  boots  made,  where 
Joel  Barlow  ate  his  hasty  pudding,  the  porch 
where  Commodore  Hull  liked  to  sit ;  and  tell 
no  end  of  stories  about  visits  of  Lafayette, 
James  Monroe  and  "  Old  Hickory."  These 
are  innocent  chroniclers,  forgetting  the  present 
in  the  glorious  past,  and  we  must  allow  a  little 
for  the  play  of  the  imagination  ;  but  when  they 
aver  that  Noah  Webster,  as  a  lieutenant  com- 
manding a  company  of  Yale  students,  once 
escorted  General  Washina^ton  through  the 
town  and  received  a  compliment  therefor,  an 
approving  nod  is  in  order,  for  the  great  lexico- 
grapher recorded  the  incident  in  his  diary  "  at 
the  day  and  time  of  it." 

Visitors  frequently  refer  to  the  city  as  an 
overgrown  village.  It  is  hard  for  a  New  York 
man  to  realize  as  he  strolls  through  the  ample 
grounds  of  his  New  Haven  friends,  that  he  is 
in  a  city  of  more  than  one  hundred  thousand 
inhabitants.  The  value  put  upon  breathing- 
places  is  shown  in  the  large  tracts  of  land 
devoted  to  public  purposes.  One  walks  hardly 
ten  minutes  in  any  direction  without  coming 
upon  a  square  shaded  by  graceful  elms  and 
carpeted  by  a  cleanly  shaven  lawn  ;  while 
the  margins  of  the  city  by   river   and  sound 


586 


New  Haven 


abound  in  tastefully  arranged  parks.  The 
transformation  of  the  two  great  wooded  ridges 
beyond  the  dwelling -line  into  well -graded 
drives,  art  vying  with  nature  to  please  the  eye 
and  win  the  soul  to  beauty,  completes  the  im- 
pression sometimes  expressed,  that  New  Haven 
is  an  immense  village  encircled  by  gardens. 

But  while  all  this  may  suggest  a  condition  of 
dreamy  repose,  the  city  is  by  no  moans  given 
over  to  dolce  far  niente.  The  University 
with  its  manifold  departments  is  a  veritable 
hive  of  industry;  the  scales  of  Justice  at  the 
County  Court  House  are  tipping  endlessly  in 
favor  of  right  against  wrong ;  while  the  busy 
hum  of  the  Winchester  Arms  and  a  hundred 
other  mills,  makes  a  music  that  dies  not  out. 

Altogether,  historic  New  Haven  is  a  pleas- 
ant place  in  which  to  live,  and  its  hospitality 
is  as  generous  as  are  its  gardens  and  its  parks. 


INDEX 


Acton,  Mass.,  262,  266,  272,  294 
Adams,  John,  49,  187,  228,  524, 

526 
Adams,    Samuel,    12,    iSo,   200, 

202,  228,  259,  261,  264,  265 
Agassiz,  Louis,  176,  242 
Akers,  Paul,  78 
Albany,  532 
Alcott,   A.    Bronson,    279,     292, 

293,  294 
Alcott,  Louisa,  294 
Alden,  John,  328,  334 
Alden,  Priscilla,  328 
Alden,  Rear-Admiral,  66 
Aldrich,  Thomas  B.,  50,  176 
Allen,  Samuel,  429 
Allerton,  Isaac,  578 
Allston,  Washington,  236 
Alsop,  Richard,  527 
Amherst  College,  82 
Amsden,  John,  429 
Amsterdam,  310 
Andover,  Mass.,  144 
Andrew,  Gov.  John,  265 
Andros,  Sir  Edmund,   334,  419, 

420,  518,  519,  566,  567 
Ann,  Cape,  126,  127 
Anne,  Queen,  420,  449,  523 
Appleton,  Capt.  Samuel,  412 


Apponaug,  R.  I.,  486 
Aquidneck,  444 
Arlington,  Mass.,  2ig 
Arnold,  Benedict,  578 
Arnold,  Fred.  A.,  206 
Arnold,  Matthew,  50 
Arnold,  Thomas,  482 
Ashley,  Rev.  Jonathan,  428,  438 
Ashmun,  Jehudi,  582 
Austerfield,  304,  306,  332 
Austin,  Jane  Goodwin,  50,  330 


B 


Bacon,  Dr.  Leonard,  510,   582 
Bacon,  Francis,  140 
Bacon,  John,  407 
Baker,  Miss  C.  Alice,  426 
Baldwin,  R.  S.,  5S2 
Bancroft,  George,  50,  89,  276,  514 
Bardwell,  John,  436 
Bardwell,  Thomas,  435 
Barlow,  Joel,  525,  526,  527,  584 
Barnard,  Henrj',  30,  544 
Barnard,  Rev.  Mr.,  154 
Barnstable,  Mass.,  376,  381,  388, 

389.  3^3,  394.  397,  400 
Barnstable  County,   Mass.,   361, 

393 
Barre,  Mass.,  106 
Barrett,  Col.  James,  273,  276 


587 


588 


Index 


Bartholomew,  E.  S.,  550 
Bartol,  Cyrus,  78 
Bates,  Katharine  Lee,  345 
Bedford,  Mass.,  219,  266 
Bedfordshire,  244,  246,  247 
Beecher,  Catherine,  S,  546 
Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  8,  11 
Beecher,  Lyman,  8,  556,  582 
Beers,  Capt.  Richard,  410,  412 
Bellingham,  Gov.  Richard,  141 
Bennington,  Vt.,  265,436 
Bentham,  Jeremy,  279 
Bentzon,  Th.,  33 
Berkeley,  George,  450,  451,  452, 

454,  455,  458,  505 
Berkeley,  Lucia,  455 
Berkeley,  Mrs.  George,  451 
Beverly,  Mass.,  92 
Billerica,  Mass.,  219 
Billington,  John,  377 
Blackstone,  Sir  William,  140 
Blaine,  James  G.,  78 
Blanchard,  Claude,  460,  461,  462 
Block,  Adrian,  515 
Block  Island,  446 
Borgeaud,  Charles,  17 
Boston,  23,  58,  64,  81,  82,  84,  86, 
94,  96,  98,  102,  106,  III,  113, 
141,   143,   144,  149,   159,  167- 
210,  230,  234,   248,  256,  259, 
262,  271,  277,   278,  289,  294, 
329,  364,   374,   377,  388,  392, 
419,  434,  441,  451,   484,  486, 
494,  497,  4g8,   505,   507,  518, 
519,    524,  525,  526,    532,  534, 
553,  556,  564 
Boston,   England,  207,  250 
Boston  College,  180 
Boston  University,  180 
Bourne,  Mass.,  380,   381 
Bourne,  Richard,  379 
Bovvditch,  Nathaniel,  159 
Bowdoin  College,  76 
Brackett,  Thomas,  56 
Brackett,  Mrs.  Thomas,  56 
Bradford,  Gov.  William,  49,  124, 
131,    132,   134,  299,  303,   304, 
306,  308,  309,  311,   314,   315. 


316,   317,  319,  324,  326,  329, 

334,  346,  351,  352,  353,  354. 

377 
Bradley,  Rev.  Caleb,  75 
Bradstreet,  Simon,  124,  125,  140, 

216, 217,  219 
Braintree,  Eng.,  217,   218 
Branford,  Conn.,  574 
Brewster,  Mass.,  380,  381,  384 
Brewster,  Nathaniel,  340 
Brewster,  William,  299,  304,  308, 

309,  311,   317.  322,  328,  329, 

334,  336 
Bridgham,  Samuel  W.,  498 
Brighton,  Mass.,  219 
Brimfield,  Conn.,  532 
Brindley,  Deborah,   no 
Bristol,  R.  L,  492 
Brockett,  John,  558 
Brooktield,  Mass.,  20,  105,  117 
Brookline,  Mass.,  204,  550 
Brooks,  Phillips,  10,  11,  26,  184 
Brown,  Alice,  50 
Brown,  Chad,  478,480,  4S5,  492 
Brown,  Charles  Farrar,  78 
Brown,  H.  B.,  79 
Brown,  James,  491 
Brown,  John,  492,  494,  497,  502 
Brown,  Joseph,  492 
Brown,  Moses,  492,  495 
Brown,  Nicholas,  492 
Brown  University,  491,  499 
Browne,  Nathaniel,  486 
Browne,  Rev.  Robert,  113 
Brownell,  Thomas  C,  538 
Brunswick,  Me.,  75 
Bryce,  James,  12,  15,  33 
Buchanan,  James,  551 
Bucks  County,  Eng.,  247 
Bulkeley,  Rev.  Peter,  243,  244, 

246,  247,  248,  249,  251,  253, 

268,  270 
Bunce,  William  G.,  550 
Bunker  Hill,  58,   109,  204,  206, 

232,  260,  261,  300,  435,  492 
Bunyan,  John,  246,  281 
Burgoyne,   Gen.  John,  1 12,   210, 

234,  238,  436 


Index 


589 


Burnet,  Jacob,  96 
Burns,   Anthony,  173 
Burr,  Aaron,  112,  570 
Burroughs,  Rev.  George,  57,  144 
Burton,  Richard,  550 
Bushnell,  Dr.  Horace,  9,  11,  542, 

544 
Buzzard's  Bay,  345,  402 

C 

Cabot,  George,  530 
Cabot,  John.  514 
Cabot,   Sebastian,  514 
Cady,  Jonathan,  496 
Calhoun,  John  C,  584 
Calvin,  John,  253 
Cambridge,  Eng.,  220,  308,  309 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  140,  181,  204, 

208,   211-242,    24S,   259,   260, 

271,  435,  511,  512 
Campbell,  William,  570 
Canaan,  Conn.,  532 
Canning,  George,  525 
Canonicus,  476 
Cape  Cod  Towns,  345-402 
Carlisle,  iMass.,  266 
Carrington,  Edward,  495,  502 
Carver,  John,  312,  317,  326,  336, 

346,  352 
Casco,  Me.,  56 
Casco  Bay,  66,  75 
Castine,  Baron,  420 
Chandler,  Lucretia,  no 
Channing,  Rev.  \V.  Ellery,  8,  11, 

279,  2S0,  282,  505 
Chantavoine,  284 
Charles  I.,  563 
Charles  II.,  391,  508,   563 
Charlestown,    Mass.,    136,    140, 

141,  168,  204,  207,  215 
Chase,  Salmon,  76 
Chatham,  Mass..  381,  382 
Chauncy,  Rev.  Charles,  227 
Chelmsford,  Mass.,  266 
Child,  Lydia  M.,  176 
Childs,  Samuel,  438 
Church,  Frederick  E.,  550 
Church,  Major,  57 


Clark,  Francis  E.,  8,  11 

Clark,  Rev.  Mr.,  261,  262 

Clarke,  Captain,  70 

Clarke,  John,  319,  481 

Clay,  Henry,  536 

Cleeves,  George,  56,  57 

Clemens,  Samuel  L.,  548 

Clerc,  Laurent,  536 

Clifford,  Nathan,  76 

Clyfton,  Richard,  299,  304,  307 

Codman,  Charles,  79 

Cogswell,  Alice,  535 

Cogswell,  F.  H.,  553 

Cogswell,  Mason  F.,  527,  535 

Coke,  Edward,  140 

Cole,  Charles  O.,  79 

Collier,  Sir  George,  569 

Colt,  Caldwell  H.,  541 

Colt,  Col.  Samuel,  540 

Colt,  Mrs.  Samuel,  541 

Conant,  Roger,  126,  127 

Concord,  Mass.,  7,  49,  106,  164, 

204,  219,  232,  243-297,  434 
Conway,  Mass.,  431 
Cooke,  Rose  Terry,  50,  549 
Coolidge,  Susan,  443 
Cooper,  J.  Fenimore,  279 
Copley,  JohnS.,  339 
Corey,  Giles,  144,  146 
Corey,  Martha,  144,  145 
Corliss,  George  H.,  500,  501 
Cornbury,  Lord,  420 
Cornbury,  Nathaniel,  412 
Corwin,  Jonathan,  138,  142 
Cotton,  Rev.    John,     218,     24S, 

249,  250 
Coverly.  Nathaniel,  336 
Cowper,  William,  246,  247 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  247,  261,  312, 

563,  564 
Crowninshield,     Benjamin     W., 

158 
Crowninshield,  George,  156,  15S 
Cumberland  County,  Me.,  76 
Curtis,  George  W.,  49,  280 
Cushman,  Robert,  334 
Cutler,  Manasseh,  27,  84,  90,  92, 

93.  94.  "5 


590 


Index 


D 


Dalton,  Richard,  450,  451 

Dana,  Richard,  236 

Dane,  Nathan,  27.  87,  90,  Q2 

Danvers,   92 

Danvers  Centre,  139 

D'Anville,    Admiral,    190,    191, 

192, 194,  195 
Dartmouth,  Eng.,  316 
Davenport,  Abraham,  571 
Davenport,  John,  553,  564,  565, 

571,  572,  5S0 
Davenport,  John,  Jr.,  582 
Davenport,  Lieutenant,  70 
Davison,  William,  309 
Day,  Jeremiah,  582 
Daye,  Stephen,  241 
Dean,  Barnabas,  533 
Dedham,   Mass.,  219,  404,  406, 

407 
Deerfield,  Mass.,  84,  403-442 
Delfthaven,  315,  332 
Dennis,    Mass.,    3S0,    381,    384, 

391 
Derby,  Conn.,  526 
Detroit,  524 
Devon,  380 

Dexter,  Gregory,  478,  480,  485 
Dickinson,  David,  433 
Dickinson,  Thomas  W.,  438 
Diman,  Rev.  J.  L.,  480 
Dixon,  James,  551 
Dixwell,  Col.  John,  567 
Doane,  Deacon,  379 
Dokeshury,  Eng.,  312 
Donitson,  Daniel,  430 
Dorchester,  Mass.,  96,  140,  511 
Dorchester  Heights,  208 
Dorr,  Sullivan,  502 
Dorr,  Thomas  W.,  500 
Dow,  Neal,  64 
Dowse,  Thomas,  181 
Drake,  Sir  Francis,  348 
Duddingston,  Lieutenant,  492 
Dudley,  Gov.  Thomas,  216,  217, 

219,  422 
Dunster,  Rev.  Henry,  227 


Durfee,  Thomas,  478 
Duxbury,  Mass.,  328 
Dwight,  Theodore,  527 
Dwight,  Timothy,  278,  366,  523, 

582 
Dyre,  Mary,  484 

E 

Eastham.  Mass.,  352,  368,  374, 
376,  377,  378,  379.  3S0,  381, 
388,  400 

Eaton,  Amos  B.,  582 

Eaton,  Theophilus,  553,  556, 
558,  580 

Edinburgh,  174 

Edwards,  Governor,  582 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  7,  11,  290, 
523,  570 

Eggleston,  James,  411 

Eliot,  C.  W.,  30 

Eliot,  John,  334,  403-  404 

Eliot,  Samuel  A.,  211 

Elizabeth,  Cajie,  56 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  309,  312 

Elwell,  J.  D.,  297 

Emanuel  College,  219,  224 

Emerson,  Ralph  W.,  7,  11,  49, 
176,  246,  250,  251,  267,  268, 
270,  278,  279,  280,  281,  282, 
284,  285,  286,  289,  291,  293, 

294,   339 

Emerson,  Rev.  Mr.,  270,  274,  275 

Endicott,  John,  123,    124,    126, 

127,  128,   T29,   130,  131,    132, 

140,  141,   152,    156,   216,  564, 

565 
Essex,  Eng.,  217 
Essex  County,   Mass.,  148,    277, 

413,  414 
Evans,  George,  76 
Everett,  Edward,  180,  227,  236 


Fairfield,  Conn.,  570 
Falmouth,  Mass.,  345,  361,  393, 

394,  396,  400,  402 
Falmouth,  Me.,  56,  57,  58,  60,  61 


Index 


591 


Farrar,  Charles,  78 

Faunce,  Elder,  330 

Felt,  Capt.  John,  154 

Felt,  Rev.  J.  B.,  128,  162 

Fern,  Fanny,  78 

Fernay,  Chevalier  de,  460 

Fessenden,  William  Pitt,  76 

Field,  Col.  David,  433 

Fields,  James  T.,  162,  176 

Fisher,  Lieutenant,  407 

Fiske,  John,  50,   106,  241,  508, 

548 
Foote,  Andrew  Hull,  580,  582 
Fox,  George,  4S7 
Foxe,  Edward,  303 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  93,  94,  iSo, 

253,  257,    286,  288,   470,  490, 

505,  526,  578 
Frary,  Samson,  408 
French,  Daniel  C,  297 
Frink,  Rev.  Thomas,  108 
Fuller,  Dr.,  132 
Fuller,  George,  437 
Fuller,  Margaret,  236,  280 


Gage,  Gen.    Thomas,   152,    206, 

210,  22S,  434,  522 
Gallaudet,  Thomas  H.,  535,  536 
Garfield,  James  A.,  84,  97 
Garrison,  William  L.,  180 
Garth,  General,  569 
Gates,  Gen.  Horatio,  270 
George  III.,  198,  202,  256,  270 
Gerry,  Elbridge,  231 
Gilibs.  James,  4S0 
Gill,  Mass.,  431 
Gillette,   William,  550 
Gladstone,  William  E.,  253 
Gloucester,  Mass.,  363,  370 
Goddard,  WMUiam,  496 
Godman,  Elizabeth,  562,  563 
Goethe,  Johann  Wolfgang,  293 
Goffe,  W'illiam,  4II-  563.  564 
Good,  .Sarah,  141,  143 
Goodrich,  Chauncey,  530 
Goodrich,  S.  G.,  532,  544 


Gosnold,  Bartholomew,  348 
Granby,  Conn.,  532 
Grand  Manan,  194 
Grant,  Ulysses  S.,  551 
Gray,  156 
Gray,  Asa,  242 
Grayson,  William,  89 
Greele,  Alice,  61,  62 
Greene,  Nathanael,  214,  471 
Greenfield,  Mass  ,  431 
Greenleaf,  Simon,  76 
Gregory,  Francis  H.,582 
Griggs,  Dr.,  140 
Groton,   Mass.,  246 
Guilford,  Conn.,  565 

H 

Hadley,  Mass.,  411,  413,  416 
Hale,  Edward  Everett,  92,    117, 

176,  185 
Hale,  Matthew,  140 
Hale,  Nathan,  582 
Halifax,  195 
Halifax  Bay,  195 
Hamilton,  Mass.,  92 
Hampden,  John,  247,  258 
Hancock,   John,    172,   228,   259, 

261,  264,  265 
Hancock,  "  Lady,"   172 
Hand,  Daniel,  29 
Hannibal,  268 
Harlakenden,   Roger,  220 
Haroun  Al-Rashid,  2S1 
Harrington,  Jonathan,  264 
Harris,  William,  4S5 
Harris,  W.  L.,  96 
Harris,  W.  T.,  30,  31,  294 
Harrold,  Eng.,  247 
Hartford,  9,   92,    140,   219,  486, 

507-551 
Harvard,  John,  224,  226 
Harvard  University,  24,  106,  180, 

222,    224,   226,   228,   242,  259, 

260,  275,  340,  429 
Harwich,  Mass.,  361,  381,  382 
Hatfield,  Mass.,  413,  416,  417 
Hawkshurst,  Eng.,  244 


592 


Index 


Hawley,  J.  R.,  551 
Hawthorne,  John,  142 
Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  7,  g,  50. 

75,    125,    128,    156,    159,    160, 

162,   172,  275,   279,   2S2,   284, 

285 
Hayes,  Rutherford  B.,  too 
Haynes,    Gov.  John,    217,    511, 

514 
Hemingway,  Jacob,  574 
Hendery,  Andrew,  1 10 
Herbert.  (leorge,  317 
Hertford,  Eng.,  514 
Hibbins,  Ann,  141 
Higginson,    Rev.    Francis,    132, 

133,  134,  138 
Higginson,  Rev.  John,  124 
Higginson,  Thomas  \V.,  32,  167, 

236,  24 r 
Hill,  Thomas,  78 
Hillhouse,  James,  530 
Hinsdell,  Samuel,  408 
Hoar,  George  F.,  86,  S8,  Sg,  93, 

g4,  96,  97,   g8,    100,    103,  116, 

117,  118 
H olden,  Mass.,  106 
Holmes,  John,  236 
Holmes,  Oliver  W.,  40,  50,  176, 

17S,  214,  227,  232,  236,  241 
Holmes.  Rev.  Abiel,  481 
Holyman,  Rev.  Mr.,  4S0 
Holyoke,  Capt.  Samuel,  417 
Honeyman,  Rev.  Mr.,  44g 
Hooker,  Rev.  Thomas,  217,  218, 

219,  507.  510,  512,  514,  521 
Hopkins,  Dr.  Lemuel,  525 
Hopkins,  Dr.  Samuel,  8 
Hopkins.  Esek,  502 
Hopkins,  Governor,  572 
Hopkins,  Stephen,  4go,  494,  502, 

505 
Howe,  General,  ig6,  202,  206 
Howe,  Julia  Ward,  176 
Howells,  William  D.,   176,  241 
Hubbard,  Rev.  William,  21S 
Hubbardston,  Mass.,  82,  106 
Hudson,  Henry,  348 
Hud.son,  J.  B.,  79 


Hull,  Isaac,  57S,  584 
Humphreys,     David,    525,    526, 

582 
i  iuntingdon,  247 
Hutchinson,  Anne,  220,  248 
Hutchinson,  Gov.    Thomas,  144, 

148 


Ingersoll,  Governor,  582 
Ingraham,  J.  H.,   78 
Ipswich.  Mass.,  92,  219 
Irving,  Washington,  81,  279 
Ives,  Thomas  P.,  502 

J 

Jackson,  Andrew,  364,  584 

Jackson,  Lydia,  339 

Jacobs,  George,  124 

James,  Sir  John,  450,  451 

James  I.,  314,  315 

Jefferson,   Thomas,    16,    89,   90, 

253.  257,  25S,  286,  526 
Jewell,  Marshall,  551 
Johnson,  Dr.  Samuel,  176 
Johnston,  Alexander,  507 
Jones,  Capt.,  32S 
Jones,  Rev.  John,  246 
Jones,  William,  564,  565 
Judson,  Adoniram,  340 
Jumel,  Betsy,  112 
Jumel,  Stephen,  112 


Kellogg,  Elijah,  78 
Kendall,  Rev.  James,  332 
Kent,  Chancellor,  244,  380 
Killingworth,  Conn.,  574 
King,  Rufus,  go 
Kingston,  Mass.,  328 
Kirkland,  Rev.  John  T.,  227 
Knowles,  Admiral,  ig6 
Knox,  Gen.  Henry,  214 


Lafayette,  Marquis  de,    158,  584 
Lancashire,  312 


Index 


593 


Lancaster,  Mass.,  105,  246 

1-angdon,  John,  260 

Langdon,  Rev.  Samuel,  232,  259 

Larcom,  Lucy,  43 

Latimer,  George  D.,  121 

Laud,  Archbishop,  247 

Lee,  Richard  Henry,  89 

Leete,  Deputy  Governor,  565 

I'Epee,  Abbe  de,  536 

Leslie,  Col.,  154 

Lexington,  Mass.,  58,   109,  174, 

202,  204,   219,    238,   259,260, 

261,  262,  264,   265,  266,    271, 

272,  273,  278,  294,  434 
Leyden,  311,   314,  315,  322,  334 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  14,  253,  289, 

550 
Lincoln,  Mass.,  266,  272 
Lincolnshire,  185,  304 
Lisbon,  531 
Litchfield,  Conn.,  8 
Locke,  John,  253,  258 
Locke,  Jonas,  435 
London,  174,  176,  178,  1S5,  334, 

522,  553,  564 
Londonderry,  N.  IL,  108 
Longfellow,    Henry  W.,   50,  66, 

68,  69,   75,  78,  79,   176,   214, 

227,  234,  236,  260,  262 
Longfellow,  Samuel,  78 
Longfellow,  Stephen,  69,  530 
Longmeadow,  Mass.,  429 
Lonsdale,  R.  I.,  504 
Lossing,  B.  J.,  96 
Lothrop,    Capt.     Thomas,    410, 

413,  414,  415 
Louis  XV.,  1 88 
Louis  XVL,  526 
Louisbourg,  188,  202,  265,  329, 

429 
Lowell,  James   Russell,  32,  50, 

176,  214,  224,  227,  231,  236, 

239.  275 
Lowell,  Rev.  Charles,  231 
Lynn,  Eng. ,  247 

M 

Magee,  Capt.  James,  376 


^Lllbon,  Martha,  562 

Malbon,  Richard,  562 

Mann,  Horace,  30,  180 

Manning,  Pres.  James,  491,  500 

Manomet.  320,  331 

Marcus  Aurelius,  308 

Marie  Antoinette,  go 

Marietta,  Ohio,  27,  82,84,  86,  88, 
90,  92,  97,  100,  103,  115,  116, 
117,  118 

Marshfield,  Mass.,  328,  332 

Mashpee,  Mass.,  392 

Mason,  James  M.,  376 

Massasoit,  324,  325,  329 

Mather,  Cotton,  141,  149,  222, 
348,  409,  411,  413,  415 

Mather,  Eleazer,  418 

Mather,  Eunice,  418,  426 

Mayflower^  15,  100,  316,  317, 
319,  320,  326,  328,  338,  341, 
345,  346,  348,  350,  352,  853, 
354,  377,  50S,   578 

Maynard,  Sir  John,  258 

McClanathan,  John  and  Eliza- 
beth, no 

McKoon,  Joseph,  430 

McSparran,  Doctor,  488 

Mead,  Edwin  D.,  81 

Medfield,   Mass.,  40S 

Medford,    Mass.,  408 

Meigs,  Return  J.,  94 

Mendon,  Mass.,  15 

Merrimac  River,  219,  267 

Miantinomi,  476 

Middlesex  County,  Mass.,  105, 
258,  260,  26S,  277 

Milford,  Conn.,  564,  566 

Milton,  John,  222,  286 

Minot,  Captain,  272 

Mobile,  68 

Monadnock,  82 

Monroe,  James,  584 

Monson,  Conn.,  532 

Montaigne,  282,  284,  285 

Montesquieu,  258 

Montpellier,   113 

Montreal,  65 

Moody,  Dvvighl  L.,  8,  1: 


594 


Index 


Morrill,  Lot  M.,  76 
Morris,  G.  P.,  i 
Morse,  Alpheus  C,  504 
Morse,  Jedediah,  582 
Morton,  Nathaniel.  320 
Moseley,  Capt.  Samuel,  414,  415 
Motley,  John  Lothrop,  81 
Mount  Wollaston,  128,  218 
Mowatt,   Captain,  6c5^  61,  62,  72 
Mowry.  Roger,  484 
Munroe,  Robert,  265 
Murray,  Alexander,  no 
Murray,    Col.    John,    109,    no, 

III,  115 
Musketaquit  River,  260 
Muskingum,  102 

N 

Nantucket,  368,  394,  532 
Narragansett  Bay,  81,  475,  481 
Narragansett,  R.  I.,  488 
Natick,  Mass.,  104,  406 
Nauhaught,  Deacon,  393 
Naumkeag,   126,    127,    131,    132, 

133 
Neal,  John,  78 
New  Bedford,  392 
Newburgh,  N.  Y.,  99 
Newburyport,  171 
New  Haven,  24,  487,   524,   532, 

553-5S6 
Newport,  R.  I.,  7,  176,  443-473, 

481,  484.  487,  494.  505,  521 
Newton,  Mass.,  219,  404,  511 
Newtown,  Conn.,  512 
Newtowne,  Mass.,  215,  216,  218, 

219,  220,  223 
New  Windsor,  521 
New  York,  64,  93,  94,  168,  170, 

174,  176,  441,  486,  497,  532, 

534,  584 
Niles,  John  M.,  551 
Noble,  John,  19S 
Norfolk,  380 
Norfolk,  Conn.,  532 
Norfolk,  Va.,  532 
Northampton,  Mass.,  7,  418 


Northfield,  Mass.,  412,  415 
North  Kingstown,  R.  I.,  486 
Norton,  Charles  E.,  241 
Nottingham,  304 
Nurse,  Rebecca,  144 

O 

Oakham,  82,  106 

Odell,  Eng.,  244,  246,  247 

Oliver,  Thomas,  231,  232 

Olmsted,  Frederick  L.,  550 

Olney,  Eng.,  247 

Orleans,   Mass.,  352,    380,    381, 

388,  393,  396 
Osborn,  Charles  J.,  575 
Osborn,  Goody,  141,  143 
Osgood,  James  R.,  176 
Otis,  Harrison  Gray,  530 
Otis,  James,  198,  228,  390 
Ouse  River,  246,  247 
Oxford,  302 
Oxford  County,  Me.,  69 


Paddock,  Ichabod,  368, 

Palfrey,  John  G.,  50,  236 

Pamet,  368 

Pamet  River,  351 

Paris,  178,  536 

Parker,    Capt.    John,    261,   264, 

265 
Parker,  Theodore,  176,  261,262, 

265 
Parkman,   Francis,    50,   81,   176, 

181,  446 
Parris,  Elizabeth,  139 
Parris,    Rev.   Samuel,    139,    140, 

141.  I5> 
Parsons,  Samuel  H.,  94 
Parsons,  Theophilus,  76 
Pascal,  2S5 

Patten,  Nathaniel,  522 
Pawtucket,  R.  I.,  486,  495 
Pawtuxct  River,  476 
Paxton,  Charles,  106 
Paxton,  Mass.,  82,  103,  106 


Index 


595 


Payson,  Edward,  78 
Peabody,  George,  29,  72 
Pelham,  Mass.,  109 
Pemaquid,  58 
Penn,  William,  406 
Pennicook,  104 

Percy,  Lord,  204,  238,  261,  276 
Peskeompskut,  416,  4:7 
Phelps,  William  Walter,  575 
Philadelphia,  170,  288,  522,  534 
Philip,    King,   56,   81,   267,  329, 

381,   389,  410,  416,   417,. 484, 

517 
Phillips,  Wendell,  173 
Phipps,  Sir  William,  58,  146 
Pickard,  Samuel  T.,  53 
Pickering,  Timothy,  90,  158 
Pierce,  Mm.  Anne  L.,  68 
Pierpont,  John,  261,  266 
Pierson,   Abigail,  582 
Pierson,   Abraham,  574 
Pilgrimage,  Historical,  v,  82 
Pitcaiirn,  Major,  265 
Pitican,  Simon,  104 
Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  100 
Pittsfield,  Mass.,  549 
Plat.o,  7,  284 
Plimpton,  John,  407 
Plymouth,  131,  243,  299,  343 
Plymouth  Colony,   57 
PI} /mouth,  Eng. ,  316 
Plymouth,   Mass.,    100,  299-343, 

.377.  378,  390,  394,  507 
P  ocumtuck,  Mass. ,  407,  408,  410, 

414 
Pocumtuck  River,  403,  404,  431, 

441 
Pokanoket,  416 
Pompamamay,   104 
Pond,  Charles  M.,  543 
Pond,  Elizabeth,  543 
Pool,  Maria  L.,  59 
Pope,  Albert  A.,  543 
Portland,  8,  53-80 
Portsmouth,  N.  IL,  171 
Portsmouth,  R.  I.,  481 
Powell,  Lyman  P.,  xi 
Preble,  Com.  Edward,  66,  69 


Prentice,  George  D.,  544 
Prentiss,  Sargent  S.,  76 
Prescott,  Col.  George,  296 
Prescott,  Col.  William,  204,  206, 

232,  260 
Prescott,  Dr.   Samuel,  261,   267, 

271 
Prescott,  William,  530 
Prescott,  W.  H.,  159 
Presumpscot  River,  75 
Prince,  Thomas,  106,  194 
Princeton,  Mass.,  82,  103,  106 
Pring,  Martin,  348 
Providence,  R.  L,  475-506 
Provincetown,   Mass,    345,    346, 

350.    354-3(^5.    366,   369,    370, 

376.  377.  388,  389,  396,  400 
Pugastion,  104 
Putnam,  Ann,  151 
Putnam,  Israel,  96,  97,  435 
Putnam,  Rufus,   27,   82,  88,   90, 

92,  93,  94,  96,  97,  98,  99,  100, 

102,    109,    114,    115,    116,  118, 

119 
Putnam,  W.  L.,  76 
Pym,  John,  258 
Pynchon,  Colonel,  413 


Quebec,  200,  277 
Quincy,  Josiah,  227,  236 
Quincy,  Josiah,  Jr.,  174 
Quincy,  Mass.,  128 
Quincy,  Mrs.  Josiah,  172 
Quinnipiac,  556,  580 

R 

Rasle.  Father,  427,  429 
Raymond.  75,  76 
Readc,  Lieutenant,  70 
Reed,  Thomas  B.,  56,  57,  69 
Revere,  Paul,  174,  260,  262,  325, 

402 
Kiedesel,  von.  Baron.  234 
l<iedesel.  von.  Baroness,  234 
Kiplc),  Lieutenant,  296 


596 


Index 


Ripley,  Rev.  Dr.,  262,  291,  2g6 
Robbins,  Rev.  Chandler,  330 
Robinson,  Rev.  John,  299,  304, 

307,  311,  315,  334 
Rochambeau,  Count,  459,  521 
Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Count, 

464,  465 
Rousseau,  Jean  J.,  258 
Rouville,  Hertel  de,  424 
Rowlandson,  Joseph,  105 
Roxbury,  202,  208 
Russell,  Joseph,  491 
Russell,  William,  491 
Russell,  William  E.,  239 
Rutland,  Eng. ,  116 
Rutland,  Mass.,  81-119 


Sabin,  James,  492 

St.  Edmundsbury,  113 

Salem,  9,   57,    75,    84,    121-166, 

171,  216,  258,  385.  563 
Samoset,  324 
Sampson,  Deborah,  330 
Sampson,  Simeon,  330 
Sanborn,  Frank  B.,  243 
Sandwich,  Mass.,  376,  379,  380, 

3S1,  388,  391,  393,  394,  400 
Sandys,  Sir  Edwin,  332 
Saratoga,  N.  Y.,   112 
Sassawannow,  104 
Saybrook,  Conn.,  574 
Schuyler,  Major  Peter,  422 
Scott,  Richard,  484 
Scott,  Walter,  161 
Scrooby,    Eng.,    119,    299,    300, 

304,  308,  309,  332 
Sebago,  Lake,  75 
Seekonk  River,  476,  497 
Selden,  John,  140 
Sequassen,  515 
Sewall,    Samuel,   105,    loS,   150, 

151 
Shakespeare,  William,  135,  286, 

292,  293 
Sharnbrook,  Eng.,  247 
.Shaw,  Martha,  no 


Shaw,  Robert,   173 

Shawmut,    168 

Shawonet,  R.  I.,  481 

Shays,  Daniel,  97,  106,  438 

Shelburne,  Mass.,  431 

Sheldon,    Ensign  John,  424,  426 

Sheldon,  George,  403 

Shepard,     Rev.     Thomas,     219, 

220,  222 
Sherman,  Miiiot,  530 
Sherman,  Roger,  578 
Shirley,  Gov.  William,  187,  191, 

194 
Shirley,  Thomas,  i  74 
Shrewsbury,  Mass.,   106 
Sicard,  Abbe,  536 
Sidney,  Algernon,  253,  258 
Sigourney,  Lydia  H.,-  544 
Silliman,  Benjamin,  58^2 
Simmons,  Franklin,  78,   79 
Skelton,  Rev.  Samuel,  133.  I34 
Slater,  John  F.,  29 
Slater,  Samuel,  495 
Slidell,  J.,  376 
Slosson,  Annie  T.,  549 
Smibert,  John,  450,  451,  454- 
Smith  College,  82 
Smith,  Colonel,  204 
Smith,  Elihu  H.,  527 
Smith,  Elizabeth  Oakes,  78 
Smith,  Capt.  John,  56 
Smith,  John,  348 
Smith,  Seba,  78 

Socrates,  286  i 

Somerset,  H.  M.  S.,  356 
South  Boston,  183 
Sparks,  Rev.  Jared,  227,  236 
Speedwell,  the,  315,  316 
Spenser,  Edmund,  286 
Spooner,   Ephraim,  332 
Sprague,  William,  501 
Springfield,  Conn.,  140 
Springfield,  Mass.,  415,  416 
Standish,  Barbara,  328 
Standish,  Lora,  336 
StandLsh,   Myles,  312,   317,  325, 

328,   329,   336,  350,   352,  353. 

378 


Index 


597 


Standish,  Rose,  336 

Stark,  Gen.  John,  265,  436 

Stebbins,  John,  415 

Stebbins,  Lieut.  Joseph,  435, 
436,  438 

Stedman,  Edmund  C,  548 

Stephens,  Mrs.  Ann  S.,  78 

Stiles,  Ezra,  411,  568 

Stimson,  F.  J.,  50 

Stonington,  Conn.,  498,  548 

Story,  Joseph,  159,  227 

Story,  William,  236 

Stoughton,  Lieutenant-Gover- 
nor,   149 

Stowe,    Harriet  Beecher,   8,   50, 

76,    546 
Strong,  Governor,  528 
Stroudwater,  76 
Stuyvesant,  Peter,  516 
Sudbury,  84 
SuiTolk,  England,  113 
Sumner,  Charles,  176 
Sumner,  James,  480 
Sunderland,  431 
Suttlife,  Nathaniel,  408 
Sutton,  Mass.,  97 
Swanzey,  410 


Talcott,  Mary  K.,  507 
Taylor,  Father,  11 
Taylor,  Rev.  John,  438 
Teft,  Thomas  A  ,  504 
Tennyson,  Alfred,  282,  299 
Terry,  Alfred  H.,  582 
Thatcher,  Doctor,  332 
Thoreau,  Henry,  7,  280,  282,  285, 

2S9,  296.  345,  367,  370 
Throckmorton,  John,  478 
Tileston,  John,  296 
Tillinghast,  Pardon,  487 
Tilton,  J.  R.,  79 
Tisquantum,  324 
Tituba,  139,  141,  143.  144.  150 
Tocqueville,  Alexis  de,  i 
Toucey,  Isaac,  550 
Trask,  Joseph,  104 


Treadweli,  John,  530 

Treat,   Major  Robert,  412,  414^ 

415 
Treat,  Robert,  518,  519 
Treat,  Rev.  Samuel,  379 
Trimountain,  168 
Trinity  College,  534,  538 
Tripoli,  69 

Trumbull,  Annie  E.,  549 
Trumbull,   Dr.   Benjamin,    511, 

512,  516,  518 
Trumbull,  Colonel,  576 
Trumbull,  Henry  C,  549 
Trumbull,  James  H.,  548,  549 
Trumbull,  John,  522,  523,  524, 

525 
Truro,  Mass.,  345,  351,  356,  361, 

366-376,  381,  400 
Tryon,  General,  569 
Tucker,  Richard,  56 
Tufts  College,  180 
Turner,  Capt.  William,  416,  417 


U 


Upham,  Charles  W.,   128,    144, 
162 


Van  Buren,  Martin,  551 
Vanderbilt,  Cornelius,  575 
Vane,  Sir  Henry,  222,  248,  249 
Varnum,  J.  M.,  94 
Very,  Jones,   159,  292 
Vezzerano,  446,  448 
Voltaire,  258 

W 

Wachusett,  Mass.,  82,  103,  104, 

105, 114 
Wadsworth,  Captain,  519 
Wadsworth,   Henry,  68 
Wadsworth,  Gen.  Peleg,  68,   69 
Wales,  Prince  of,  72 
Walker,  Gen.   Francis  A.,  117 
Walker,  Rev.  James,  227 
Walpole,  Sir  Robert,  452 


598 


Index 


VVamassick,  104 
Wananapan,  104 
Ward,  Gen.  Artemas,    106,  204, 

207,  208,  232 
Ward,  Edward,  184 
Ware,  Ashur,  76 
Wareham,  Mass.,  396 
Warner,  Charles  Dudley,  548 
Warren,  James,  338 

Warren,  Joseph,    174,    214,   228, 

259,  262 
Warren,  Mercy  Otis,  338 
Warren,  R.  I.,  49 
Warville,  Brissot  de,  464 
Warwick,  R.  I.,  481 
Washington,  D.  C,  241,  527 
Washington,  George,  93,  96,  98, 

99,    102,   154,    158,   202,   207, 

208,  214,  232,  260,  265,  268, 
278,  286,  288,  289,  388,  462, 
471,  472,  490,  521,  526,  568, 
582.  584 

Waterbury,  Conn.,  525 
Waters,  Lieutenant,  66 
Watertown,  Conn.,  523 
Watertown,  Mass.,  215,  260,  511 
Watson,  Ellen,  299 
Wauchatopick,  105 
Wayland,  Francis,  499,  500 
Webster,  Daniel,  49,  87,  88,  180, 

332 
Webster,  Noah,   523,    544,  57S, 

582,  584 
Weeden,  William  B.,  475 
Weld,  Daniel,  407 
Welles,  Gideon,  550 
Wellesley  College,  180 
Wellfleet,    Mass.,  351,  374,  375, 

376,  380,  393 
Wells,  Captain,  420 
Wells,  Thomas,  419 
Westbury,  Conn.,  523 
Westfield,  Conn.,  532 
Westford,  .Mass.,  266 
West  Haven,  Conn.,  568 
West  Point,  568 
Wethersfield,    Conn.,    508,  521, 

533 


Weybosset,  R.  I.,  482,  485 
Whalley,  Edward,   563,   564 
Wheaton,  Henry,  499 
Wheelwright,  John,  248,  249 
Whipple,  Abraham,  492,  494 
Whipple,  Edwin  P.,  176 
White,  Peregrine,  337,  354 
Whitefield,  George,  570 
Whiting,  Rev.  John,  253 
Whitney,  Eli,  582 
Whittier,  John  G.,    50,    54,   81, 

17^).  544 >  570 
Wickenden,  William,  480 
Wilkins,  Mary  E.,  50 
Willard,  Benjamin,  105 
Willard,  Henry,  105 
Willard,  Rev.  Joseph,  108,  227 
Willard,  Rev.  Samuel,  440 
Willard,   Simon,    105,   219,   243, 

244,  246,  268 
William  the  Silent,  311 
Williams,  Abigail,  140 
Williams,  Col.  Ephraim,  429 
Williams,   Rev.  John,  418,  422, 

428 
Williams,  Roger,  9,  11,  124,  136, 

138,   152,   449,   476,  478,  480, 

481,  482,  484,  485,  486,  488, 

489,   502 
Williams,  Rev.  Stephen,  428 
Willis,  N.  P.,  78,  17S 
Wilson,  Rev.  John,  220 
Windsor,  Conn.,  508 
Winslow,  Edward,  312,  314,  315, 

317,  326,   328,   329.   332,   334, 

389 
Winslow,  Gen.  John,  332 
Winslow,  Josiah,  332,  337 
Winthrop,      Gov.      John,      136, 

140,  168,   180,  2T4,  216,  220, 

248 
Winthrop,  Robert  C,  49 
Winthrop,  Theodore,  582 
Woburn,  Mass.,  260 
Wolfe,  Gen.  James,  277 
Wolsey,  Cardinal,  306 
Woodhill,  244 
Wood's  Holl,  Mass.,  394 


Index 


599 


Worcester    County,     Mass.,    97, 

103,  105 
Worcester,  Eng.,  302 
Worcester,  Mass.,  82,   103,   105, 

III,  113,  116,  117,  498,  499 
Worcestershire,  312 
Wyclif,  John.  303 
Wyllys,  Samuel,  519 


Yale,  Elihu,  574 

Yale  University,    24,    366,    454, 

523-  572,  574.  575,  576,  582, 

584,   586 
Yarmouth,  Mass.,  368,  377,  380, 

381,  385,  393 
Yorkshire,  247,  304 
Yorktown,  521 


Historic  Towns  of  New  Eng:land 

Edited  by  Lyman  P.  Powell.    With  introduction  by  George 
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William  Cowper.  |  John   Knox. 

In  this  series,  Marion  Harland  presents,  not  dry  biographies,  but,  as 
indicated  in  the  sub-title,  studies  of  the  home-life  of  certain  writers  and 
thinkers.  The  volumes  will  be  found  as  interesting  as  stories,  and,  indeed, 
they  have  been  prepared  in  the  same  method  as  would  be  pursued  in  writ- 
ing a  story,  that  is  to  say,  with  a  due  sense  of  proportion. 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS,  New  York  and  London 


3  1205  02528  4686 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


D  000  975  522  4 


